An option for people who don’t see successful results from standard depression treatments like talk therapy or antidepressants is transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Research shows that this non-invasive technique, which uses electromagnetic fields to stimulate nerve cells in the brain, can fill the therapeutic void left when other treatments fail.

Now, scientists claim they’ve developed a targeted, faster form of TMS for severe depression. They call it Stanford Accelerated Intelligent Neuromodulation Therapy or SAINT. In a study on 21 participants diagnosed with severe depression, SAINT caused 90 PERCENT TO EXPERIENCE RELIEF.

For the 30 percent of clinically depressed people who are, so far, treatment-resistant, SAINT may be a possible solution — if further studies replicate these astonishing early findings.

“This is really a way of turning on a brain region that’s been turned off by depression in a personalized way,” co-author Nolan Williams, a neuropsychiatrist at Stanford University, tells Inverse.

“Part of my job as a depression doctor is to give people hope. I think that’s what keeps people alive who have chronic treatment-resistant depression. Certainly, THIS SHOULD GIVE EVERYBODY HOPE that this, or something like it, is coming.”

The results were published Monday in the American Journal of Psychiatry.

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Source: Inverse.com 

Last updated: 7 April 2020

By Ali Pattillo