Depressed? Just Magnetize Your Brain Waves, Says FDA

Proxac , Paxil , Zoloft , Celexa : Whether you ’re clinically depressed or not , you probably know all of those medications by name . But now you could supersede them all with magnet . The Food and Drug Administration in the US has just approved a new option for the depressed and medication - weary : Transcranial magnetic stimulation , or TMS . Its jingle could be , “ cheap than electrical shock therapy , less frightening than electrode implants!”The TMS gadget that ’s been approved is called the NeuroStar , manufactured by Neuronetics Inc. Physicians use it by first find a patient ’s motor control condition region — they maintain a wire coil , or basic inductor , around a affected role ’s straits , and then send a current through the scroll for induce a magnetic field of study . This charismatic field make an opposite current to flow in the brainpower , stimulating electric activity in its cell and creating a physical response in the body . If the patient ’s motor restraint area is “ zapped ” in this way , her arm might suddenly jerk . Using the location of the motor control condition region as a guide , head-shrinker then move the NeuroStar to detect a affected role ’s prefrontal cortex — where it is believed most mood problems rise up . Over the duet of six weeks , a patient receives thousands of magnetic pulses in 40 - minute treatments that take place five times a week . In the FDA ’s study , the biggest complaint patient role had was about headaches ; unlike shock therapy , TMS does n’t seem to carry the risk of memory passing , and it does n’t stimulate seizure . Its overall advantage over antidepressants , however , is still up in the air . Lauran Neergaard of the Associated Pressreportson the study ’s achiever :

About 24 percent who got TMS mark importantly well on standard depression measures after six week , compare with 12 per centum who have the sham , enunciate [ NeuroStar study leader Philip ] Janicak . That ’s about as well as patients respond to a single antidepressant drug , he said .

Neergaard also reported that one in five patients suffering from depression are discourse - resistant , meaning that they ’ve tried at least two courses of antidepressant drug medication without enough outcome . The FDA ’s tryout of TMS did n’t use those severely treatment - resistant patients ; instead , it focused on 164 patients who had undergo just one abortive line with an antidepressant drug . And since Neergaard also pointed out that the FDA ’s was “ a bailiwick pregnant with statistical question that have-to doe with the way ’s own scientific advisers , ” I ’d advise you to hold back a few months — like , say , until the NIH has given its two cents in an independent followup work — before strapping any wire coil to your head . Magnet Approved to Treat Depression[Discovery News ] trope from Getty Images via Discovery .

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