Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation as a Potential Tool to Reduce Sexual Arousal

Status

Completed

Phases

Study type

Interventional

Source

ClinicalTrials.gov

Registry ID

NCT04209309

Enrollment

Registered

2019-12-24

Start date

2014-10-01

Completion date

2016-07-01

Last updated

2019-12-24

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

Keywords

sexual arousal

Brief summary

Hyper- and hyposexuality occur frequently in a variety of psychiatric disorders and are difficult to treat. While there is meta-analytic evidence for the significant effect of non-invasive brain stimulation on drug and food craving, no study has investigated the potential of this technique to modulate sexual behavior. The efficacy of a single session of high-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) over the left or right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) to reduce sexual arousal was tested against a sham stimulation. To test this hypothesis, we employed a randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled crossover study design. Nineteen healthy male participants received high-frequency rTMS over the left DLPFC, high-frequency rTMS over the right DLPFC and sham rTMS (each 10 Hz; 110% resting motor threshold; 60 trains with 50 pulses) in randomized and counterbalanced order with a one-week interval between stimulation sessions to avoid carryover effects. Participants were exposed to neutral and sexual cues before and after each intervention and rated their sexual arousal after each block of cue presentation.

Interventions

DEVICErepetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation

Study design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Intervention model

PARALLEL

Primary purpose

BASIC_SCIENCE

Masking

SINGLE (Subject)

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

MALE

Age

18 Years to 50 Years

Healthy volunteers

Yes

Inclusion criteria

* motor threshold below 55% * informed consent * male * 18-50 years * heterosexual * right handedness

Exclusion criteria

* contraindication for TMS * somatic or mental illnesses * intake of psychoactive drugs * left handedness * homo- or bisexual * paraphilia

Design outcomes

Primary

Measure	Time frame	Description
Change of sexual arousal	immediately before and after the single session of rTMS	short 10-item version of the Affect and Arousal Scale, which captures perceived genital, autonomic and psychological sexual arousal as well as state sexual desire

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Feb 4, 2026