Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
A new clinical society has been founded to coordinate TMS practices and to connects physician and non-physician members from across the world.
New data show that patients with unipolar, non-psychotic major depressive disorder (MDD) receiving transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) achieved significant improvements in both depression symptoms and in quality of life measurements.
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is noninvasive focused brain stimulation that uses pulsed magnetic fields. The underlying mechanism depends on the principle of electromagnetic induction, the process (discovered by Faraday in 1839) by which electrical energy is converted into a magnetic field and vice versa.1
Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) may be an effective therapy for treatment-resistant bipolar depression, according to the results of a recent pilot study led by Guohua Xia, MD, PhD, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California, Davis.
Transcranial magnetic stimulation produced improvements in key areas of cognition and in short-term verbal memory in patients with major depressive disorder, and no adverse cognitive effects were shown. The results of this research were presented by Mark Demitrack, MD, vice president and chief medical officer of Neuronetics, Inc, and colleagues at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association in May.
The FDA has cleared the first transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) device (Neuro-Star) for the treatment of major depressive disorder in adults who show no improvement after an adequate trial of a single antidepressant.
Corticospinal tract (CST) integrity may predict the potential for clinical improvement in chronic stroke patients, according to a recent study. Winston Byblow, MSc, PhD, associate professor and director of the Movement Neuroscience Laboratory in the Department of Sport & Exercise Science at the University of Auckland, Australia, and colleagues used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and MRI to determine factors that predict functional improvement in a patient's upper limbs.1 In patients with motor-evoked responses (MEPs) to TMS, researchers found that meaningful gains were still possible 3 years after stroke, although the capacity for improvement declined with time. The researchers also created an algorithm to predict functional potential for upper limb recovery in this patient population.
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New data show that patients with unipolar, non-psychotic major depressive disorder (MDD) receiving transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) achieved significant improvements in both depression symptoms and in quality of life measurements.
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