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Stimulants use disorder is an emerging issue in the Czech Republic and even worldwide. The treatment of this condition is complicated by multiple factors as insufficient social background, impulsivity and intense craving. The treatment remains often unsuccessful and there is no specific pharmacological treatment so far. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation is a noninvasive therapeutic method well known and approved in the treatment of treatment-ressistent psychiatric disorders. In the last decade, the possibility of implementing this method to the substance use disorders (SUD) treatment has been explored. This review aims to provide an insight to the evidence published on the field of rTMS in patients using stimulants. 12 original studies were identified by the literature research (8 of cocaine use disorder and 4 of methamphetamine use disorder). The high frequency stimulation of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex delivered by common figure of eight coil was used by the majority of researchers. Some of the others used the theta burst stimulation, or deep transcranial magnetic stimulation delivered by H-coil. Cue-induced craving (craving after exposing the subjects to a drug related cue) was evaluated in most papers. A control group stimulated by a sham stimulation was included in 5 studies. Sham stimulation plays an important role in rTMS research as it can distinguish the placebo effect of the stimulation itself. Presented studies differed widely in stimulation protocols (frequency, intensity, stimulated area, total number of pulses etc.) and provided results remain inconsistent. Low numbers of subjects stand for limit as well. However, most studies presented at least some effect of rTMS on either craving or stimulants use. Also, well designed double-blind studies revealed promising results. The results of reviewed trials provide a promising perspective that rTMS can be an effective method in stimulants use disorder treatment. However, the number of double-blind sham-controlled trials remains insufficient. More controlled double-blind trials with larger number of participants need to be completed. Intensified protocols may come in handy for future as they allow researchers to deliver larger total number of pulses in shorter period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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