USING MAGNETISM TO TREAT DEPRESSION

There’s a new weapon in the fight against depression, and while it’s not for everyone, it may help some patients who aren’t responding to other treatments.  It’s called transcranial magnetic stimulation—TMS—and it uses targeted magnetic pulses to generate electrical activity in a region of the brain believed to be linked to depression.

“The ideal candidate is someone who has tried an antidepressant and either they couldn’t stand the side effects or they didn’t get better from one or two drugs,” said Dr. Scott Babe, a psychiatrist at Samaritan Regional Mental Health Center in Corvallis, Oregon.

The first commercial device for TMS therapy, called the NeuroStar, was cleared by the U. S. FDA in 2008 for the treatment of major depressive disorder.

A typical course of treatment involves four to six weeks of daily TMS sessions.

TMS is not nearly as effective in treating depression as electro-convulsive therapy—sometimes known as shock treatment—which uses electricity to induce seizures that can recalibrate brain function in some patients, Dr. Paul Holtzheimer, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Emory University School of medicine in Atlanta, said/  But it has far fewer and less severe side effects.

Unlike electroconvulsive therapy, TMS is an outpatient treatment.  No anesthesia is required, and patients can resume normal activity immediately after a session.