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Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
Patient Feedback

Magnetic Therapy: A procedure called repeated transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) may be effective for depression and is being studied for patients with bipolar disorder. The only significant side effects reported are grand mal seizures and a mild headache.

Unlike ECT (electro-convulsive therapy), this procedure appears not to cause memory lapses or impaired thinking. One study in patients with unipolar depression found that after one year relapse rates were significantly lower after rTMS than after ECT, although only a few small studies have been conducted using this procedure and it still needs refinement.

According to Alvaro Pacual-Leone MD, PhD, who has helped pioneer rTMS, about 30 percent of patients do not respond to the treatment.

In the NAMI California newsletter (2001), there were two reports of women who had participated in the trials. For both, repeated transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) was a last resort.

One woman suffered from major depression for 19 years. "I'd rather end my life than continue on the way I am," she confided. She'd been through every new medication, only to be let down time and time again, but desperate as she was, she was unwilling to take a gamble on electro-convulsive therapy (ECT).

The other woman had been receiving treatment for depression for 16 years. On three occasions she had undergone 10 to 12 sessions of ECT, only to discover the benefit lasted but a few months. Her last round of ECT resulted in her being so confused that she could not work.

After two weeks of rTMS, the first woman reported: "I am singing. I am humming. People do not recognize me ..." Both she and the second woman are working at new jobs, and both feel greater happiness without any side effects.

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