While many technical details for optimal stimulation parameters need further investigation and optimization, the TMS appears to deserve careful experimental scrutiny as a potential therapeutic tool in alcoholics and other addicts. Indeed, with its nearly absent systemic effects, minimal side-effects, and a low degree of invasiveness, TMS may offer the first opportunity for an efficacious, non-pharmacological, therapeutic tool in alcoholism and other chemical dependencies. If appropriately combined with a solid neurobiological rationale (DA system), it may offer a unique opportunity for developing further the first “electrophysiological” approach in studying and eventually treating the devastating and widespread brain disease of addiction.
