Electric Therapy Can Relieve Depression

New treatment using currents can help when meds don't
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 21, 2008 12:11 PM CDT
Electric Therapy Can Relieve Depression
TMS therapy uses magnetic pulses to stimulate the left prefrontal cortex.   (Neuronetics)

People with major depression that doesn't respond to medication may get relief from a therapy that uses magnetic pulses to stimulate the cortex, the Wall Street Journal reports. In a clinical trial, transcranial magnetic stimulation worked in about a quarter of patients—about twice the success rate of patients on a placebo.

It led to “improvement in mood, sleep, appetite, energy level, and a restoration of hopefulness and self-esteem,” says a psychiatrist. Though TMS doesn't have the sexual and weight-gain side effects of some drugs, it’s not recommended until patients have tried more than one antidepressant. But with the treatment, “we're standing at the threshold of a new family of therapeutic interventions," the psychiatrist adds.
(More depression stories.)

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