Approaching rTMS With Openness, Awareness, and Engagement in a Combined Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Framework

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychology
• Psychiatry

Background:

• Noninvasive neuromodulation, particularly repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), has growing empirical support.
• The integration of psychotherapy with rTMS is an emerging area of clinical research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review the literature on combining psychotherapy with rTMS.
• To explore this integration from a psychologist's perspective within a contextual behavioral model and neural network framework.

Main Methods:

• A narrative overview of existing studies combining psychotherapy and rTMS.
• Analysis within the framework of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and implicated neural networks.

Main Results:

• rTMS-induced changes in neural network flexibility and connectivity may create a conducive neural environment for psychotherapy.
• This combination shows potential for synergistic strengthening of psychological and brain network flexibility.
• Studies reviewed span diverse clinical populations and utilize ACT principles.

Conclusions:

• rTMS can be concurrently applied with psychotherapy to foster psychological flexibility (openness, awareness, engagement).
• This combined approach can serve as a transdiagnostic, process-based intervention.
• The intervention is situated within a psychosocial and biophysiological context.