Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation for Dizziness, Balance, and Postural Stability in Adult Patients With Chronic Peripheral Vestibular Dizziness.

Adding active rTMS to an eight-week vestibular rehabilitation program improved dizziness, balance and postural-stability measures more than sham stimulation in this small trial.

Ahmed RAM, Mohamed AA, Youssef A, Fahmy E, Hamdy HS, Nafia H, Fayed IH, El-Din SS.
Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation · Publication date: 2026-08-06
Added to site: 2026-10-07
DOI: 10.1016/j.apmr.2026.02.005

First published online August 6, 2026; the October issue date is later. Added October 7, 2026 as a historical addition.

Modalities

TMS/rTMS

Clinical focus

Vestibular rehabilitation, Balance and dizziness

Population

Adults with chronic peripheral vestibular dizziness

Sample

56 adults

Intervention / method

10-Hz rTMS at 90% resting motor threshold plus vestibular rehabilitation, three sessions weekly for eight weeks

Comparator

Sham rTMS plus the same vestibular rehabilitation program

Clinician summary

Between-group estimates favored active rTMS for visual vertigo by 2.1 points, Berg Balance Scale by 6.3 points and total equilibrium composite by 6.9 points, with reported large standardized effects.

How to interpret the findings

The abstract does not report group allocation counts, attrition, baseline comparability, adverse events, masking checks or post-treatment durability. The results test an adjunct to rehabilitation in a selected population and do not establish stand-alone rTMS efficacy or generalize to other causes of dizziness.

Equipment and disclosures

10-Hz rTMS; coil and device manufacturer were not verified from the checked abstract.

Funding and competing-interest disclosures were not available in the checked authoritative abstract.

Related evidence

Compare findings from the same clinical area, including mixed results.