TMS experience narrated by patient who has lived with depression for decades!! Check out the video
DENVER – For too many years to count, Terri Diem has lived with depression. Despite decades of treatment and countless courses of antidepressants, nothing ever seemed to cure Diem’s depression.
“It just never worked very well,” Diem said. “And as I am sure you can imagine, that perpetuated the depression.”
Two years ago, Diem began treatment with Dr. Daniela Stamatoiu, who determined Diem had treatment resistant depression. After even more treatment failed to garner positive results, Stamatoiu suggested a new type of therapy approved in October 2008 called transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS.
The NeuroStar TMS therapy system sends a series of magnetic pulses at the left, pre-frontal cortex of the brain. Psychiatrists believe this is an area where neurons need to be in balance for depression to subside. The treatment depolarizes neurons, which then discharge an action potential. In other words, brain cells needed to stave off depressive symptoms begin functioning again as they should in a patient without depression.
Patients sit in a chair resembling something you would see in the dentist’s office. A hovering hood is placed over the left side of a patient’s head before therapy begins. Treatment consists of a series of hundreds of magnetic pulses, which ‘click’ at rapid fire every minute.
The treatment is non-invasive, and patients can watch a movie or chat with the doctor or an assistant during the hour or so of treatment.
After several months of treatment, Diem says she began seeing a remarkable improvement in her own demeanor, beginning with a greater interest in doing things outside of the shrinking “bubble” felt depression had established around her.
The value of that, she says, is priceless.
“The best way I can describe it is clarity. I have a lot more energy, I enjoy things now, I’m taking on new hobbies,” Diem said. “Eventually, I realized I had a much more positive outlook on life.”
Stamatoiu believes Diem’s case is proof that the treatment works and can change lives.
“It’s what makes our profession so rewarding,” Stamatoiu said, “as we’re seeing them through the hard times and into the good times. We build significant relationships with our patients. If there’s a chance that this can, at the very least, add back another layer of who they are, then it’s worth it.”
A full course of treatment costs patients between $8,000 and $12,000, with each session costing about $400. Since the therapy system is relatively new, it is still quite expensive and not covered by many insurance plans.
Psychiatrists who advocate for the system argue that while expensive, the system actually is more effective in treating otherwise untreatable depression. Furthermore, the average cost of depression between medication and therapy ($26,000) is far greater than the $12,000 cost for a regiment of TMS.
Finally, psychiatrists argue the cost of treatment resistant depression averages about $45,000, so a potential treatment that reverses that could make the TMS treatment even more valuable than its sticker cost would suggest.
TMS World 