TRANSCRANIAL MAGNETIC STIMULATION: ALTERNATIVE TO SHOCK

                                                        

                                                by Katherine Tapley-Milton

     Shock therapy is back in vogue among psychiatrists, a fact which is very disturbing.    While the doctors 

claim it helps the deep depression of bipolar mood disorder and is safe, in reality shock therapy can have the

 side effect of long term or short term memory damage that in a lot of cases can be permanent. An alternative 

therapy, TMS or “Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation” seems to be a less barbaric treatment which does not 

cause brain damage.  General anesthetic is not required with TMS and specific areas of the brain can be 

targeted without causing a convulsion.

     According to the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression, TMS “ ... has been 

successful in helping people who are severely depressed.”  TMS uses an external magnet to stimulate the left 

prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain that is found to be functioning abnormally in depressed individuals.  Dr. 

Mark George comments, “This new tool allows us for the first time in the history of mankind to non-

invasively stimulate the brain while the person is awake and alert.” In a study of 30 depressed, suicidal 

patients who had not been helped by medication, 20 had TMS for 20 minutes five days a week for a 

fortnight.  Ten patients had the magnetic device placed on their heads but didn’t receive the treatment.  None 

of the patients knew if they received the real treatment or not.  The patients who received the TMS therapy 

showed a marked improvement in their depression, while the controls showed no improvement at all.  

Apparently, the only side effect of TMS is that a third of the patients reported a mild headache, which was

 easily relieved with common over the counter remedies like ibuprophen.

      The biological mechanisms that trigger depression are still not well known, however, research done using 

MRI machines has detected abnormalities in the prefrontal cortex of depressed patients.  This reason lead 

scientists to consider TMS as tool to target that area.  Before TMS becomes a standard treatment for 

depression at your local Mental Health Clinic, more studies have to be done to determine why it works, what

 intensity of magnetic power to use, and how frequent the treatment should be.  However, Dr. George feels 

that further MRI research will reveal more of the brains secrets.   Also, there is controversy over whether a 

treatment which does not cause a convulsion is as effective as electroshock which does cause a convulsion. 

   Traditional electroshock requires anesthesia and this can produce over sedation and vomiting afterwards, 

while TMS does not have these discomforts.

        There are a significant number of depressed patients who are not helped by antidepressants or 

experience too unpleasant side effects to tolerate them.  While there is still experimentation going on with

 TMS it has been around for ten years and looks like a humane and viable alternative to shock therapy.