Non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) can help a person quit smoking, scientists from the University Hospital Center Dijon-Burgundy (France) found. The findings of their new work were described in the journal Addiction.

Recently, NIBS has been increasingly used to treat addictive disorders such as alcohol or other substance abuse. However, in a new study, the researchers decided to consider the use of this technique in people with nicotine addiction.

To do this, they conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of the effectiveness of NIBS in long-term smoking cessation, as well as 7 other studies involving almost 700 patients.

It turned out that smokers who were exposed to NIBS for 3-6 months were 2.39 times more likely to be long-term abstinent than smokers who received placebo.