Mind and Magnets - Newsweek Health Article Highlights rTMS Therapy for Depression
December 4, 2006
From the article: "Anne and Mark (not their real names) could never have guessed that their lives would be saved by magnetism. Both had suffered at least a year of disabling depression. Numerous psychiatric treatments failed to provide longed-for relief. Life was miserable until they began receiving an experimental treatment with a clumsy name: repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, or repetitive TMS."
"Mark’s mother found out about repetitive TMS from a news report almost 10 years ago when he was 17. She tracked down Dr. Alvaro Pascual-Leone of the Center for Noninvasive Brain Stimulation at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. Within two weeks of treatment he received as part of a study, Mark developed a more positive outlook. He has needed maintenance treatment every four months or so, but it has not interfered with intellectual functioning the way ECT did. He finished high school, and earned two college degrees in education. Now he’s a teaching assistant, optimistic that he will realize his goal of being a teacher."