Brain Stimulation For Depression
Sep 20, 2004 3:50 pm
US/Central
Experts Say Medication
Therapy Is Not Effective For Up To 30 Percent Of Patients Who Take
It For Depression.
Now There's A Potential New Treatment That
May Help Those Patients Find Relief.
When Anti-Depressants
Stopped Working For Susan Severson.. She Was Treated With An
Experimental New Treatment.
Susan Severson\Patient
"Went
To My First Dance Saturday Night In 15 Years. Had A Ball."
Susan Is In Her Fourth Week Of A Study Testing Transcranial
Magnetic Stimulation.. Or T-M-S.
The Technique Sends Short
Magnetic Pulses Through The Skull To The Brain.
They Stimulate
The Nerve Cells That Control Mood.
Peter Rosenquist, MD\Wake
Forest University
"With Tms, We're Focusing On A Particular Group
Of Brain Cells, Just Below The Surface."
Doctor Rosenquist
Says Unlike Electroconvulsive.. Or Shock Therapy.. T-M-S Stimulates
Brain Cells Without Causing A Seizure.
It's An Outpatient
Procedure.. Requires No Anesthesia.. And Is Less Invasive.
"Individuals Can Come In, Sit Down For The 37 Minutes It
Takes To Do The Treatment, They're Awake, They're Alert."
The Treatment Is Relatively Painless.
"It Isn't Any
More Than Somebody Just Like Tapping Like This On Your Head."
Susan Doesn't Know If She's Getting The Real Treatment Or A
Placebo.
But She's Thinking Positively.
"About What I
Wanted To Do With My Life Instead Of Just Wait To Die, Which Is
Primarily What I Had Been Feeling For Years, Just Trying Not To Die
For A, A Long Time."
So Far Side Effects Of T-M-S Have Been
Minimal.
Some Patients Have Complained Of Headaches.
(MMIV, CBS Broadcasting Inc., All Rights
Reserved.)
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