Posted by twinleaf on September 8, 2007, at 11:34:20
In reply to TMS, posted by kered on September 6, 2007, at 15:05:51
Hi. There's quite a lot by me (previous posting name Pfinstegg) about TMS in the archives. I have been to Atlanta for ten courses of TMS with Dr Hutto over the last five years. I am only partially drug-resistant, but have had very bad side effects from the SSRI's, SNRI's, AP's and tricyclics, so I was looking for a better way to treat my MDD. It has always worked very well for me, with the depression really lifting for several months. It does gradually return, though. Dr. Hutto has patients who need one or two treatments a year, only, as well as ones who need three treatments every 3-4 weeks.It is used for bipolar. But it is true that it only works for about half of the people who try it. Dr. Hutto always gives it to the left frontal area- it hurts! - but it's bearable.
The way it's thought to work is that, in animals, it's known to calm down the activity of your HPA axis, so that you have less cortisol entering your brain and damaging the neurons in certain parts of it- such as the hippocampus. The CA3 cells in the hippocampus look healthier and start growing. Also, in depression, we tend to have decreased blood flow in the left frontal regions, as measured by how much glucose they are using. TMS can restore the blood flow to normal for a period of time. The actual electromagnetic current from TMS only goes about 2 centimeters into your brain, but it is thought that the neurons activated close to the surface send messages deeper into your brain, so that neurons in the deeper structures are activated also.
Earlier this year, an FDA advisory committee recommended that TMS NOT be approved, as it was not too different from ECT, and slightly less effective. This caused a major uproar, as it is so safe, and does not impair memory (it actually makes it slightly better). So Drs. Hutto, Mark George, and others at Columbia, Yale, Harvard and elsewhere have formed a committee to push hard for its approval. I last saw Dr. Hutto in August, and he told me that he felt quite confident that it would be approved sometime this year. A number of doctors around the country have taken a training course in how to give it offered by Dr. Mark George at the Univ of South Carolina. So, if it's approved, it should become pretty rapidly available throughout the country, and insurance should pay for at least part of it- hopefully all.
In addition to the countries mentioned above where it is already approved and in use, it's also approved in Israel, Australia and New Zealand. There's a lot of published information on it from those countries. The good thing: it doesn't always work, but it IS safe!
poster:twinleaf
thread:781189
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070831/msgs/781604.html