Transcranial magnetic stimulation to relieve depression

Eva Ruiz Verde | Seville (EFE).- Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), a non-invasive neuromodulation physical therapy, has become the “adequate key” to achieve rapid treatments with which “in a few days” results are obtained in cases even of resistant depression, explains Dr. Joan Albert Camprodon, psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School in Boston (USA), to EFE.

Camprodon is one of the more than 200 mental health experts participating in Seville in a day of the Spanish Society of Clinical Psychiatry (SEPC) to address the latest developments in neuromodulation, among which this is one of the main protagonists, since it has demonstrated “very atypical remission rates in psychiatry” and which have reached 80 percent of patients.

He acknowledges that he himself was “very skeptical” at first about the response of patients with a “high severity level” but, after numerous studies with different groups, very encouraging progress has been observed that allows for optimism for the future. especially taking into account that one in five people – 20 percent of the population – will suffer from depression at some point in their lives.

No miracle, no panacea

“It is not a miracle nor is it a panacea, we have not solved the problem of depression, far from it, but we have changed the paradigm a little,” says the doctor, who insists on “the need for these more sophisticated tools because these patients “They suffer a lot, as do their families and their environment.”

The objective, he indicates, is not so much to replace other tools that also work, such as drugs or psychotherapy, but rather to increase the options for patients and doctors to treat these ailments in a more personalized way based on the characteristics of each case. “Having more options allows us to advance in precision, because each patient is different,” he says.

Dr. Joan Albert Camprodon, psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School in Boston (USA), posing in Seville for EFE. EFE/ Raúl Caro

A coil at one point on the head

Transcranial magnetic stimulation is a non-invasive therapy that does not require anesthesia and allows the activity of the cerebral cortex to be modulated through a magnetic field that is generated with a coil that is placed on the surface of the skull.

Camprodon explains that it is an outpatient procedure that can be received several days a week for an average of six in which the patient goes to the clinic, sits in a chair “just like going to the dentist” and a medical professional applies a coil on top of a specific point on the head.

“What this coil does is generate magnetic fields that when they reach the brain allow us to vary the language that neurons use to communicate with each other and to process information such as emotions, thought, movement or behavior,” he details.

Although initially its use was intended for patients with more serious or resistant pathologies, as it is a “very safe and very well tolerated” treatment, it is indicated for those who also suffer from mild or moderate depression, or are in the earliest stages. of them. In all of them positive results have been observed even “in one or two days.”

As the psychiatrist highlights, the side effects of this technique are “much cleaner” than those of drugs. “When you take a pill, its contents go to the intestine and blood. This goes to the brain, but not only there, it also goes to the lungs, the heart or the liver.” However, with TMS “you can choose, with a fairly high level of precision, which part of the brain we know is affected by a specific ailment.”

Much cheaper

Although depression is the pathology on which it is most focused, transcranial magnetic stimulation is useful to treat other disorders such as obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCD), migraines, stroke, Parkinson’s disease or addictions to tobacco, opiates, cocaine or alcohol.

Approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency, it has been used in the United States since 2008 and today, according to Camprodon, it is a tool “fully integrated into the standard of treatment for patients with depression.

In Spain at the moment it is used mainly in private clinics, although there are twenty public hospitals in communities such as Andalusia, Catalonia or Valencia in which pilot experiences have been carried out for which magnetic stimulation machines have been acquired.

“Healthcare is complex and implementation can be complicated, but the scientific evidence is there and that is undeniable,” says Camprodon, who is confident that this procedure will be implemented in the coming years and considers it important that doctors know this tool and receive information.

He also highlights that in a public health system like the current one, in which “launching drugs is part of everyday life”, EMT, beyond being effective and safe, from a cost and health economics point of view public is “much cheaper.” EFE