Systematic Reviews
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Meta-Anal. Mar 18, 2025; 13(1): 98933
Published online Mar 18, 2025. doi: 10.13105/wjma.v13.i1.98933
Role of transcranial magnetic stimulation in the management of trichotillomania: A systematic review
Sujita Kumar Kar, Babli Kumari, Rini Joseph, Surobhi Chatterjee, Mohita Joshi, Aditya Agrawal
Sujita Kumar Kar, Babli Kumari, Mohita Joshi, Department of Psychiatry, King George's Medical University, Lucknow 226003, Uttar Pradesh, India
Rini Joseph, Department of Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bengaluru 560029, Karnataka, India
Surobhi Chatterjee, Department of Psychiatry, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Mangalagiri 522503, Andhra Pradesh, India
Aditya Agrawal, Department of Psychiatry, Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow 226010, Uttar Pradesh, India
Author contributions: Kar SK was responsible for conceptualization; Kar SK and Kumari B were responsible for manuscript writing; Kar SK, Joshi M, and Agrawal A were responsible for the literature search; Kumari B was responsible for tabulation and data extraction; Joseph R and Chatterjee S were responsible for risk of bias assessment; Kar SK, Kumari B, Joseph R, Chatterjee S, Joshi M, and Agrawal A were responsible for revision and editing of the manuscript; all of the authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript to be published.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare no conflict of interest in publishing the manuscript.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors have read the PRISMA 2009 Checklist, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 Checklist.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Sujita Kumar Kar, MD, Additional Professor, Department of Psychiatry, King George's Medical University, Shahmina Road, Lucknow 226003, Uttar Pradesh, India. drsujita@gmail.com
Received: July 9, 2024
Revised: October 16, 2024
Accepted: December 12, 2024
Published online: March 18, 2025
Processing time: 247 Days and 17.2 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) can be a viable treatment option in the management of trichotillomania. The brain areas targeted are supplementary motor area (SMA), pre-SMA, and left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. TMS is well tolerated with negligible side effects. Maintenance TMS treatment facilitates sustained improvement of symptoms of trichotillomania.