Brain zapper could help beat nicotine cravings

A TREATMENT for depression may help people stop smoking. The therapy, deep repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (DTMS), involves wearing a stimulator on the head that emits electromagnetic waves.

Researchers are using it on 300 smokers in trials in the U.S., targeting an area of the brain thought to play a role in craving.

Participants will have 20minute sessions for four weeks. A study in the journal Biological Psychiatry tested 20-a-day smokers for whom other methods of quitting had failed and found more than a third had not smoked six months after the new treatment.