A research team from Dijon University Hospital in France organized a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the effectiveness of NIBS in smoking cessation. The team searched several scientific databases to find randomized controlled trials of NIBS in adult smokers who wanted to quit smoking.

In recent years, NIBS has emerged as a new therapeutic treatment for alcohol-related disorders, psychoactive substances, and addictive disorders. Another method has helped treat tobacco use-related diseases, but little is known about the efficacy of NIBS in long-term care.

Therefore, the authors of the new study combined all early studies to measure the overall effect of NIBS on smoking cessation. They included seven studies involving 699 patients.

The authors combined seven studies: they found that smokers who took NIBS were 2.39 times more likely to quit smoking than normal people. The odds were higher when considering different types of stimulation of certain parts of the brain.

The two most popular forms of NIBS are transcranial DC stimulation (tDCS) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). tDCS sends a low-intensity direct current to the brain through electrodes placed on the patient’s scalp. The weak electric current modulates the excitability of neurons.

TMS uses a metal coil that is placed on the patient’s scalp. The coil generates magnetic pulses that induce short-term electrical currents in the cortical tissue. Depending on the pulse frequency, the excitability of the target area increases or decreases.