If you are one of the 14 million Americans affected by depression each year but don't like the many side effects that come from anti-depression pills like Paxil and Prozac, hope may be just around the corner.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently cleared Neuronetics
Inc.'s NeuroStar transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) therapy,
designed to help combat depression.
To beat depression, psychiatrists aim the magnet at the left front of
the head, the prefrontal cortex. Then, the NeuroStar beams about 3,000
magnetic pulses a minute during a 40-minute treatment. The sequence is repeated about five
times a week for up to six weeks.
The
theory behind the science is that stimulating brain cells in the prefrontal cortex triggers a
chain reaction that also stimulates deeper brain regions involved with
mood.
Neuroscientists have been using TMS for years as a research tool in
brain studies and noticed that magnetized pulses were triggering certain types of brain
activity.
Is it safe?
Thus far, TMS seems very safe. Patients in the study suffered no seizures or memory problems, like those shock therapy can cause, or other reactions throughout the body. The chief complaint from the sessions was headaches.
About 24 percent who got TMS scored significantly better on standard depression measures after just six weeks, compared to just 12 percent who received the placebo (fake) treatment.
That's about as well as patients respond to a single antidepressant,
said Dr. Philip Janicak of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago,
who helped lead the NeuroStar study. But at a cost of $6,000 to $10,000,
depending on the number of treatments given, it's a an expensive gamble on a product that only works in one out of every four people.
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