TMS Therapy for Depression: When Medication Fails
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- Опубліковано 3 бер 2020
- Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is an FDA-approved, non-drug treatment option for patients that are suffering from depression. About one-third of people with depression have experienced little to no relief of symptoms from antidepressants. To quality for TMS therapy, a patient must have tried at least one antidepressant with little success.
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TMS stands for transcranial magnetic stimulation. It's a procedure by which we use a magnet to deliver an electrical stimulation to the parts of the brain that have been associated with depression.
A patient might be a good candidate for TMS if they have a current episode of major depression. Symptoms can include low mood, troubled sleeping, low energy, hopeless thoughts or suicidal thoughts. It’s also required that this depression has been inadequately treated with antidepressant treatment, currently and in the past.
It's on average about 37 minutes that the patient sits in the chair. But sometimes it could be a little bit shorter, and could be a little bit longer. The side effects are pretty minimal because we're able to deliver the treatment directly to the spot in the brain where we need it, unlike medications. But the most common things are headache and scalp pain, just from the location and the power from the magnet.
If a patient is considering or interested in TMS, they can talk to their primary care doctor or to their psychiatrist about a referral. We also accept referrals directly from patients by calling our TMS clinic.
Thank you UVA for just being there you're a great Hospital!
First, I consider it important to identify the very clear set of symptoms that are emerging in the group of people harmed by TMS. After speaking with and reading the testimony of hundreds of people, the most common symptoms are:
Significantly worsening depression and anxiety (which may also be newly “treatment-resistant”)
Cognitive impairment such as short-term memory or functional memory loss and decreased ability to multitask
Irritability
Fatigue
Panic attacks
Increased suicidal ideation
Chronic headaches
Loss of balance,
Dizziness
Almost every person I’ve spoken with experienced at least one of these, if not all of them.
Additional symptoms that are somewhat less common include:
Tinnitus
Hearing loss
Eye injury
Migraines
Different forms of tachycardia
Seizures and epilepsy
Blood pressure problems
Speech problems
Muscle pain/weakness/fasciculations/cramping/tightness
Insomnia
Dissociation
Environmental sensitivities to temperature, light, smell, and sound
Sensitivity to medications and supplements
Psychosis has also been observed in a few rare cases, but at least half of those specifically involve overuse of TMS (as described in this article).
It also became obvious to me that these symptoms manifest themselves in a very specific way. For instance, the worsening anxiety and/or depression is unrelenting and does not respond to treatment. As an example, before my TMS injury, when I was extremely anxious or depressed I would run longer and start eating really well, and this would always improve my symptoms to some degree. Typically, the harder I worked out, the better I felt, and the better I ate, the better I felt.
But after TMS, when I became depressed and anxious, exercise and eating did not help. I immediately began working out harder and harder and put myself on a stricter diet, which became stricter because I never got any relief from my symptoms. Every day I woke up feeling the same intense depths of despair, and I would become very anxious during the day. If I tried to meditate or run or use the CBT methods I had developed in the past, none of them made ANY difference at all. I found this to be remarkable and deeply disconcerting, which only compounded my situation.
Another characteristic of my TMS injury was that instead of improving in the months following TMS, I actually got worse. Immediately after TMS, I did not feel nearly as bad as I began to feel as time went on. Immediately after TMS, I still had my depression and anxiety, and I may have even felt slightly better due to the placebo effect and the hope that it was helping me.
However, about a month after TMS, I felt my symptoms were slowly intensifying until, about three months after TMS, they had become far more severe. The level of depression I felt was at least ten times what it was before. Also, instead of having anxiety occasionally bother me, I now had it all day, and panic attacks that I had only experienced once or twice in my whole life became a daily occurrence.
I concluded that this is what led to the subsequent increased, intense suicidal ideation that I experienced, which is what most others have mentioned to me when discussing their TMS injury as well. When you are extremely depressed and frequently panicking, suicidal ideation naturally follows; you come to believe you will never get any relief from the suffering and you begin to doubt if you can live with it.
To me, this is a normal human response to the trauma that TMS causes in the brain and on the nervous system. If we take a step back here and look at how these symptoms are manifesting, we can see this is “delayed onset.” New symptoms are continually manifesting after the initial injury has occurred.
Sounds good, but this can definitely have side effects. After 31 treatments my depression is worse than ever. I also have anxiety problems and concentration issues that I never had before. There should be more warning about the possible side effects as this is not as “noninvasive” as promoted.
How you doing now Kyle ?
This is why I'm scared to try it. My doc tried to recommend it to me. I'm sorry you're going through that and hope you're doing better now 🙁
How are you doing now? I am considering the TMS but the thought of my depression getting worse sounds totally intolerable. Were you at a 1 before treatment? Or more mid-range, like a 5? I am definitely at about a 2 and I am grasping at straws. Was truly hopeful in this procedure :(
Kyle where you at. Please be okay
I just asked my dr yesterday about this. I’m in Va and getting things like referrals and hopefully an apt so I can get my life back. So weird that this popped up today and it looks like you put this up today!
@Lisa Y. I am in VA too and looking into TMS. Have you done it , and successful ??
@@phillipfranklin9353 I never got to do it. I started the process and then they never got back to me after checking with my insurance. I have anxiety about phone calls, so I gave up.
@@LisasLifeThenandNow Sorry to hear that I hope you find the relief you seek .
@@LisasLifeThenandNow did you ever try again with the procedure? How are you doing now?
It works but when you stop it stops too 😿I’m back to my severe depression again and I have no hope
can tms treat apathy
I have a hard time trusting things with this music backing it up. Like it's so unserious and like they're selling a miracle
18 minutes 37 treatments
TMS therapy is a good alternative for depression treatment.
Uh-huh, right