Intensive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation for Negative Symptoms in Schizophrenia

Inclusion Criteria

• •Signed an informed consent, the patient must be able and willing to participate in a research study,
• •Undergo an examination by international neuropsychiatric questionnaire MINI - PLUS to confirm the diagnosis of schizophrenia
• •schizophrenic illness duration longer than one year,
• •have a stable and consistent drug treatment at least two weeks prior the rTMS treatment
• •persistent negative symptoms without further psychiatric comorbidity (like depression, mania, anxiety disorders, personality disorders, etc.) in the foreground of the illness
• •The sum of negative scores in the range Positive and negative symptom score (PANSS) must be 20 points or higher and at least one item from the area of negative symptoms (N1-N7) must be ≥ 4 points (at least moderate, clinically significant symptoms),
• •improvement in negative symptom-sum (measuring by PANSS) must be 10% or lower during the last two weeks before rTMS stimulation.