Discussion on the disclosure of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation in the Brazilian media

Abstract

The motivation for writing this article was the existence of large number of reports with conflicting information, especially in health care. Reports like, scientists claim that red peppers are good for the heart; Cardiologists warn: pepper can be poison for those who have high blood pressure; peppers the secret of longevity, and so on. For those articles, I could not express an opinion more than scientific skepticism and lay knowledge allowed me. However, I had the idea to look for scientific reports about my professional area, transcranial magnetic stimulation, also known by the acronym TMS. It was no surprise that the reports about TMS had similar misunderstandings to those of peppers. Thus, in order to spice up the discussion about science communication, more specifically, reports of TMS in Brazil media, I selected some texts that are discussed below. I would like to emphasize that this article has not the intention to disparage the science communication media, actually I consider very important the role that they have, bringing to the lay public information that hardly would get them by the specialized magazines