Exposure Therapy and Simultaneous Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation: A Controlled Pilot Trial for the Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.

OBJECTIVES: This is a small preliminary but novel study assessing the feasibility of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) delivery to veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) while they simultaneously receive prolonged exposure (PE) therapy. METHODS: A prospective, randomized, double-blinded, active sham-controlled design combined weekly sessions of rTMS and standard PE at the Veterans Administration Hospital. Eight adult patients received a full course of protocol-driven PE therapy and were randomly assigned to receive either rTMS or sham rTMS. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation was delivered to the right or left prefrontal cortex with a figure-eight solid core coil at 120% motor threshold, 10 Hz, 5-second train duration, and 10-second intertrain interval for 30 minutes (6000 pulses) weekly for 5 weeks (30,000 stimuli). RESULTS: Of the 12 veterans consented, 8 completed the study treatment protocol. The dropout rate was 34%, roughly equivalent to the pooled average dropout rates observed in traditional PE therapy with Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom veterans with PTSD, suggesting that veterans had no difficulty tolerating the addition of rTMS to PE therapy and that this is a feasible study design for larger trials in the future. Clinician-Administered PTSD Symptom scores reflected a general nonsignificant trend toward improvement, and subjects with comorbid major depression appeared to experience significant antidepressant benefit with treatment despite the fact that the doses used in this protocol were much smaller than those used to treat patients with major depressive disorder. CONCLUSIONS: This pilot study demonstrates the safety and feasibility of rTMS delivery to PTSD patients while they simultaneously receive PE. This unique approach to the treatment of PTSD highlights the need for further studies with larger sample sizes to assess treatment outcomes.

Incorporating Scientific Publishing into an Undergraduate Neuroscience Course: A Case Study Using IMPULSE.

The journal IMPULSE offers undergraduates worldwide the opportunity to publish research and serve as peer reviewers for the submissions of others. Undergraduate faculty have recognized the journal's value in engaging students working in their labs in the publication process. However, integration of scientific publication into an undergraduate laboratory classroom setting has been lacking. We report here on a course at Ursinus College where 20 students taking Molecular Neurobiology were required to submit manuscripts to IMPULSE. The syllabus allowed for the laboratory research to coincide with the background research and writing of the manuscript. Students completed their projects on the impact of drugs on the Daphnia magna nervous system while producing manuscripts ready for submission by week 7 of the course. Findings from a survey completed by the students and perceptions of the faculty member teaching the course indicated that students spent much more time writing, were more focused on completing the assays, completed the assays with larger data sets, were more engaged in learning the scientific concepts and were more thorough with their revisions of the paper knowing that it might be published. Further, the professor found she was more thorough in critiquing students' papers knowing they would be externally reviewed. Incorporating journal submission into the course stimulated an in depth writing experience and allowed for a deeper exploration of the topic than students would have experienced otherwise. This case study provides evidence that IMPULSE can be successfully used as a means of incorporating scientific publication into an undergraduate laboratory science course. This approach to teaching undergraduate neuroscience allows for a larger number of students to have hands-on research and scientific publishing experience than would be possible with the current model of a few students in a faculty member's laboratory. This report illustrates that IMPULSE can be incorporated as an integral part of an academic curriculum with positive outcomes on student engagement and performance.