Brain zaps for Binge-Eating? small trial shows promise

Copied word for word from the study's registry entry, so the wording is the study team's rather than ours.

Inclusion Criteria: * Scoring more than 17 points based on the BES * Age \> 22 years * Voluntarily signed informed consent * Ability to determine the motor threshold of the participant. The participant's motor threshold could be established as the minimum stimulus required to induce contraction of the right thumb * Subjects willing and able to abstain from partaking in any other weight management treatments other than the study procedure during study participation * Willingness to comply with study instructions and to return to the clinic for the required visits * Women of child-bearing potential\* are required to use birth control measures during the whole duration of the study Exclusion Criteria: * Electronic implants (Implanted stimulator devices in or near the head - rTMS devices are contraindicated for use in patients who have active or inactive implants (including device leads), deep brain stimulators, cochlear implants, ocular implant, and vagus nerve stimulators, implanted devices such as cardiac pacemakers, defibrillators, neurostimulators. Contraindicated use could result in serious injury or death. * Metallic or other magnetic sensitive implants/objects in or near the head - rTMS devices are contraindicated for use in patients who have conductive, ferromagnetic or other magnetic-sensitive metals implanted in their head or within 30 cm of the treatment coil. (Examples include implanted electrodes/stimulators, aneurysm clips or coils, stents, bullet fragments, jewellery and hair barrettes. Failure to follow this restriction could result in serious injury or death.) * Drug pump(s) * Persons with a tendency to seizure (hypotonic, epileptic) * Ongoing anticoagulation therapy * Ongoing severe or life-threatening condition * Pulmonary insufficiency * Heart disorders * Renal insufficiency * Decompensated hemorrhagic conditions, blood coagulation disorders, cardiovascular diseases * Malignant or benign tumour * Fever * Facial tattoos with metallic ink (within 30 cm of the treatment coil) * Pregnancy or nursing * Ongoing intake disorders such as bulimia or anorexia, borderline personality disorder, major depression (elevated seizure risk) or bipolar disorder Personal history of epilepsy * Personal history of syncope (except the reflex syncope) * Vascular, traumatic, tumoral, infectious, or metabolic lesion of the brain, even without a history of seizure, and without anticonvulsant medication * Withdrawal from one of the following drugs could form a relative hazard for the application of rTMS due to the resulting significant seizure threshold lowering potential: (e.g. alcohol, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, meprobamate, chloralhydrate etc.) * Systemic infection * Patients with a broad range of neuropsychiatric diseases are at elevated risk for seizures. Essentially all neurologic conditions with structural cerebral damage (e.g. stroke, multiple sclerosis, traumatic brain injury, Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases, meningoencephalitis or intracerebral abscess, parenchymal or leptomeningeal cancers) are associated with an elevated risk for seizures * History of hyponatremia, hypocalcemia, hypomagnesemia, hypoglycemia, hyperglycemia, renal failure/uremia, liver failure * History of tendency for raised blood concentrations of pro-convulsant medications due to reduced clearance (e.g. secondary to initiation of antibiotics for treatment of infections) * Immunosuppressive therapy with cyclosporine, tacrolimus and other agents that can cause the posterior reversible leukoencephalopathy syndrome * The use of amphetamines, barbiturates, cocaine metabolites, opiates and phencyclidine 72 hours before the therapy. * Contradictions for the testing used in the trial, for example, the motor threshold cannot be found or quantified.