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The Effects of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation on Alcohol Craving, Efficacy, Emotion, and Cognitive Function in Patients With Alcohol Use Disorders: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trial.

Overview

Authors: Jiayuan Song1, Xingchen He2, Ji Ouyang3, Zhaoying Li4, Yanlin liu1, Han Yu1, Aimin Li1, Hongwei Liu5, Haixia Fan6, Fan Yao7
  1. College of Integrative Medicine Changchun University of Chinese Medicine Changchun China
  2. The Affiliated Guangzhou Hospital of TCM of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine Guangzhou China
  3. College of Traditional Chinese medicine Hunan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine Changsha Hunan China
  4. School of Acupuncture and Massage Changchun University of Traditional Chinese Medicine Changchun China
  5. Department of Neurology, Taiyuan City Central Hospital The Ninth Clinical Medical College of Shanxi Medical University Taiyuan Shanxi China
  6. Department of Sleep center First Hospital of Shanxi Medical University Taiyuan Shanxi China
  7. Preventive Treatment of Disease Department Changchun University of Traditional Chinese Medicine Changchun China
Institutions: Changchun University of Chinese Medicine (China); Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine (China); Hunan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (China); Shanxi Medical University (China); Taiyuan Central Hospital (China); First Hospital of Shanxi Medical University (China)
Journal: Brain and behavior, volume 16, issue 7, article e71605
Dates: published online 26 July 2026; in print July 2026
Type: Review · Language: English
License: CC BY
Identifiers: DOI 10.1002/brb3.71605 · PMID 42503875 · PMCID PMC13402854 · OpenAlex W7171462903
Open access: gold, a free copy (OpenAlex)
Status: code on request
Categories: other (modality), human (organism), other condition (population)
Keywords: alcohol craving, alcohol use disorder, meta‐analysis, transcranial magnetic stimulation
MeSH: Alcoholism*, Cognition*, Craving*, Emotions*, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation*, Humans, Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic (* major topic)
Topic: Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Studies (Neurology, Neuroscience), according to OpenAlex
Funding: Shanxi Health Committee Foundation Project (2024057); Jilin Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (YDZJ202601ZYTS670); Fundamental Research Program of Shanxi Province (202403021222432)
Citations: not cited yet (Europe PMC); 60 references in the paper

Abstract

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the effects of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) on alcohol craving, abstinence days, alcohol intake, anxiety, depression, and cognitive function in patients with alcohol use disorder (AUD), providing evidence to support precision treatment strategies.

Methods: As of March 6, 2026, we have systematically searched eight databases (PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, China Science Journal Database, Wanfang Database, and China Biomedical Literature Service System). The Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool for Randomized Trials (RoB 2) was used to assess the quality of the included randomized controlled trial (RCT) studies. Stata15 was employed for the meta‐analysis.

Results: We included 19 RCT studies involving 942 patients with AUD. Compared with the sham stimulation group, TMS significantly reduced alcohol craving in patients with AUD. Subgroup analysis showed significant effect sizes in cases where the TMS type was continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS), the number of sessions was 10 or 15, the frequency was 10 Hz, and the follow‐up duration was ≤ 1 month or ≥ 3 months. Meta‐regression indicated that disease type might be the main reason for the high heterogeneity in alcohol craving. Compared with the sham stimulation group, TMS showed significant differences in maintaining abstinence days, reducing alcohol intake, alleviating depressive symptoms, and improving cognitive function.

Conclusions: Current evidence indicates that TMS can effectively alleviate craving in patients with AUD and demonstrate significant advantages in maintaining abstinence days, reducing alcohol intake, alleviating depressive symptoms, and improving cognitive function. Given the high degree of heterogeneity, the results were interpreted with caution. In the future, more large‐sample, multi‐center, double‐blind RCT will be needed to supplement and validate the results of this study.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Code

The paper says that its authors' code is available on request: it was not published with the paper, so there is nothing to verify.

The paper's code and data availability statement is in the Data section.

Tracing map

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Data

No dataset and no data link were found in the paper.

Data Availability Statement

This systematic review and meta‐analysis used data extracted from previously published studies. All effect sizes, covariates, and study characteristics used in our analysis are reported in the main text or supplementary materials. We did not generate any new individual‐level dataset; therefore, no data repository link is provided. Raw participant‐level data are not available from us and should be requested from the original journals via the references cited. For inquiries regarding data extraction procedures or analytical codes, please contact the corresponding author, Fan Yao. The datasets used and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Versions

The history of this record: each version stored by the harvester or made by a correction of its authors or of the maintainers of its code, and what changed in its facts. The texts of the paper (its abstract, its availability statements) are not part of it; versions that changed only those are not listed.

Version 1, 27 September 2026: the first record

Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, issue, pages, dates, 10 authors, 4 keywords, 7 MeSH terms, 3 funders, 56 references.

Cite

This paper

Song, J., He, X., Ouyang, J., Li, Z., liu, Y., Yu, H., Li, A., Liu, H., Fan, H., & Yao, F. (2026). The Effects of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation on Alcohol Craving, Efficacy, Emotion, and Cognitive Function in Patients With Alcohol Use Disorders: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trial. Brain and behavior, 16(7), e71605. https://doi.org/10.1002/brb3.71605

BibTeX

@article{song2026effects,
author = {Song, Jiayuan and He, Xingchen and Ouyang, Ji and Li, Zhaoying and liu, Yanlin and Yu, Han and Li, Aimin and Liu, Hongwei and Fan, Haixia and Yao, Fan},
title = {{The Effects of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation on Alcohol Craving, Efficacy, Emotion, and Cognitive Function in Patients With Alcohol Use Disorders: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trial}},
journal = {Brain and behavior},
year = {2026},
month = jul,
volume = {16},
number = {7},
pages = {e71605},
publisher = {Wiley},
issn = {2162-3279},
doi = {10.1002/brb3.71605},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1002/brb3.71605},
pmid = {42503875},
pmcid = {PMC13402854}
}

RIS

TY - JOUR
AU - Song, Jiayuan
AU - He, Xingchen
AU - Ouyang, Ji
AU - Li, Zhaoying
AU - liu, Yanlin
AU - Yu, Han
AU - Li, Aimin
AU - Liu, Hongwei
AU - Fan, Haixia
AU - Yao, Fan
TI - The Effects of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation on Alcohol Craving, Efficacy, Emotion, and Cognitive Function in Patients With Alcohol Use Disorders: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trial
T2 - Brain and behavior
J2 - Brain Behav
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/07/01
VL - 16
IS - 7
SP - e71605
SN - 2162-3279
PB - Wiley
DO - 10.1002/brb3.71605
UR - https://doi.org/10.1002/brb3.71605
LA - en
ER -

CSL-JSON

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