A new study shows that delivering electrical impulses to a specific area of the brain can treat depression, even in people who have unsuccessfully taken many antidepressants.
There’s a treatment called transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) that has been approved in the United States since 2008 but many doctors still remain skeptical. Now a new study published in the May edition of the Archives of General Psychiatry confirms TMS works.
Researchers delivered 3,000 pulses over 37.5 minutes to the left side of the brain that plays a role in emotion.
The treatment is safe and has few side effects. Patients reported getting headaches or eye contractions.
190 depressed patients were recruited for the study. Half of the participants received TMS, the other half received a fake treatment. In the group that received TMS, 14% recovered from their depression as compared to only 5% in the fake treatment group.
Dr. Mark S. George of the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston is the lead author of the new study. He says, "It’s very muddy now exactly how long we need to treat patients. It looks as if from this trial you at least need to try three weeks and maybe even six weeks before you would give up."