What Exactly are we Talking about Here??

 What is rTMS?

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a technique for gently stimulating the brain. It utilizes a specialized electromagnet placed on the patient’s scalp that generates short magnetic pulses, roughly the strength of an MRI scanner’s magnetic field but much more focused. The magnetic pulses pass easily through the skull just like the MRI scanner fields do, but because they are short pulses and not a static field, they can stimulate the underlying cerebral cortex (brain). Low frequency (once per second) TMS has been shown to induce reductions in brain activation while stimulation at higher frequencies (> 5 pulses per second) has been shown to increase brain activation. It has also been shown that these changes can last for periods of time after stimulation is stopped. TMS was first developed in 1985, and has been studied significantly since 1995.

What disorders has TMS been shown to be useful for?

TMS is currently being investigated as a potential treatment for patients with major depression, patients who experience hallucinated "voices" and a variety of other psychiatric and neurological disorders. Over 1500 patients have been studied with TMS. For patients with major depression,... Click Here To Read More

Posted by Jay Roberts at 08:53 PM | Permalink