Abstract
Objective:
To evaluate the effectiveness of theta-burst stimulation for the treatment of stroke-induced unilateral spatial neglect.
Data sources:
A systematic literature search was conducted from the inception of each database to 30 June 2018 using CINAHL, EMBASE, PubMed, PsycINFO, and Scopus.
Review methods:
Articles were included if theta-burst stimulation was used to treat neglect following a stroke. The additional a priori inclusion criteria were as follows: (1) ⩾3 adult (⩾18 years) participants, (2) ⩾50% stroke population, and (3) peer-reviewed journal articles published in English. Extracted data included study and treatment characteristics, results, and adverse events.
Results:
Nine studies met the inclusion criteria, generating a total of 148 participants. Eight studies evaluated a continuous stimulation protocol and one study investigated an intermittent stimulation protocol. Overall, both protocols significantly improved neglect severity when compared against placebo or active controls (P < 0.05). Adding smooth pursuit training to theta-burst stimulation did not improve neglect relative to when the stimulation was delivered alone (P > 0.05). There was inconsistent reporting of neglect terminology, outcome measures, and adverse events. The treatment characteristics were heterogeneous among the trials.
Conclusion:
This systematic review found that theta-burst stimulation seems to improve post-stroke unilateral spatial neglect, but because the evidence is limited to a few small studies with varied and inconsistent protocols and use of terminology, no firm conclusion on effectiveness can be drawn.
Keywords
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
