Though not new to other cities, a clinic is the first in Tallahassee to offer one kind of therapy for treating depression. Magnets, not drugs, could be the key for some sufferers.
If you are one of the more than 14 million Americans suffering from clinical depression, you could be one of the approximately 4 million who do not benefit from standard antidepressant medicines.
That is the problem that led psychiatrist John Bailey to direct Tallahassee's TMS Patient Care, a practice devoted to an alternative therapy. TMS stands for transcranial magnetic stimulation, which uses a magnetic current to interact with part of the brain.
“It’s used to create a current in the frontal lobe of the brain, which helps to stimulate the parts of the brain that are involved in depression to working more regularly and to develop neuronal connections to sustain that workability over time so that the improvement tends to be lasting improvement after people have undergone the six-week therapy,” Bailey explains.
The magnet used is of the power and configuration of a magnet used for MRIs, though instead of producing images, it induces currents in neurons, Bailey says. He also says it should not be used for acute treatment of crises, such as suicidal thoughts, in depression.
“It’s for people who have depression with a PHQ-9 score in excess of 10. PHQ-9 is an instrument that’s used, which is basically a questionnaire to assess the severity of depression,” Bailey says.
The TMS Patient Care clinic uses Neurostar TMS therapy, which is approved by the FDA. It claims a response rate approaching 60 percent and a remission rate of close to 40 percent, Bailey says.
The procedure and continuing research have been around for nearly 40 years, so why has it taken so long for this type of treatment to reach Tallahassee?
Not all insurance plans approve payment for the procedure for one reason, though most recently Medicare has. The therapy also requires a heavy time commitment from the patient, Bailey says.
“It’s rather easy to do. It doesn’t involve anesthesia. The person comes in and walks out without any impairments or cognitive problems from the procedure," he says. " It’s a six-week course of treatment, five days a week that takes about 45 minutes for each treatment."
Now that techniques like TMS are available to depression patients in the Tallahassee area, people struggling with antidepressant side-effects or depression not fixed by traditional medications can expand their options.
For more information, the clinic has a website.