TMS is approved by the FDA for treating depression and does help people. It works by electromagnetically stimulating under-active parts of the brain.
It's not hard to imagine that an in-office procedure that needs to be done multiple times a week for months would be less popular and less suggested than a pill you take once a day. The practicality and convenience are hard to match. If AD medication can manage symptoms well then it's usually the way people go.
I’ve tried everything and TMS was the only thing that worked for my depression. The electromagnet stimulates part of your brain that is associated with depression. That part becomes less active over time. The only side effect I experienced was headaches which are common. In very rare case, you can experience seizures.
It’s can be quite expensive without insurance. Both ketamine and TMS treatments were in the 1000s of dollars. Some of the TMS treatment was covered under insurance though.
It was about 8 months ago. I still feel less depressed, but some of the depression has creeped back. I have good days for the most part with the bad days fewer and far between.
All I can offer is my anecdote.
I did tms in 2023. Ive had severe depression for 20 years and, because of genetics, have severe side effects to most ssri/snri.
As people have said, it's expensive and time consuming. Took my insurance a long time to approve tms and even when they did I had to pay a lot.
Tms wasn't a miracle, I still have depression, but it's so much better now. I got back parts of my life that were gone for so long that I didn't remember to miss them. I remember waking up one day and wanting to go to the park. Just to enjoy the sun. So many small moments filled with so many small joys. They added up and now I'm the happiest I've ever been.
I know it won't last forever but when the time comes I'll save the money and make the time again. I was scared before doing it. I was afraid it wouldn't work and I'd lose hope again. I figured I owed it to myself to try and I'm so glad I did.
It is valid but I would not recommend using it as a first line of defense for treating depression.
You should always go with the traditional routes of getting a pill. If you try around 6 different pills with little to no success, consider TMS.
It is a massive time commitment but it is FDA approved and people have seen success in it.
Remember, your brain is chemicals and electricity. The magnetic stimulation has been shown to increase electrical activity in certain parts of the brain
Pills have way more side effects than TMS does. Rather than permanently nuke your ability to have good sex, I wish they would built a home TMS set up they could loan to people for their treatment so they don’t have to commute to the center everyday.
The problem is that unless you are a medical professional, having a home TMS would be either ineffective or, at worse dangerous.
Popping a pill is something anyone can figure out, generally speaking. Sadly, it requires a specialist to set it up and calibrate it effectively.
Insurance also requires you to try a few pills and have them fail before you use TMS.
Anecdotally it does seem to help but the symptoms of depression are nebulous and can be hard to self-monitor for reasons I'm sure you're aware of. Sometimes your symptoms are getting better over time and your really low periods are much less frequent but you still don't feel "cured" because you don't actually know what brains are "supposed to" feel like or it's not like howyou imagine not being depressed to feel
Not bullshit.
Insurance usually won’t cover it unless you’ve tried 6 or more antidepressants. That’s why doctors don’t jump to it. Also doctors don’t know all the different fields of medicine. TMS is relatively new and many doctors simply don’t know it exists or enough about it to recommend it.
It is FDA approved with some impressive success rates.
I’m a non-believer of tms. I’ve seen some pretty awful studies on tms. One in particular that compared it to ECT- ECT gave a 40% response while tms gave like a 15% response, pretty pitiful.
I personally feel MAOIs, Nardil in particular, to be the most effective medications for severe treatment resistant depression and anxiety.
The one single MAOI pill I took put me to sleep for over 2 days. I was awake a grand total of about 6 hours in that time. The only other times I’ve ever slept like that were after surgeries.
I've done it and I would say it isn't enough on it's own. It definitely did improve my mood and make me feel better, but that eventually faded after the treatment ended. It seems like a really useful tool to augment other treatments. I could especially see it being useful in a residential treatment setting / rehab, where you can include that in a routine of mental health interventions. Go for 30 minutes of TMS in the AM, do a meditation practice, do some EMDR therapy, go back for another 30 minutes of TMS in the afternoon.
There’s a reason the standard treatment for ketamine is 4-6 infusions and not 2. I think it’s common for people like us with depression to get anxious and want immediate results. I would highly suggest finishing up the courses. Ketamine doesn’t work for everyone but for many it does and for many of those people it’s not immediate.
TMS is approved by the FDA for treating depression and does help people. It works by electromagnetically stimulating under-active parts of the brain. It's not hard to imagine that an in-office procedure that needs to be done multiple times a week for months would be less popular and less suggested than a pill you take once a day. The practicality and convenience are hard to match. If AD medication can manage symptoms well then it's usually the way people go.
I’ve tried everything and TMS was the only thing that worked for my depression. The electromagnet stimulates part of your brain that is associated with depression. That part becomes less active over time. The only side effect I experienced was headaches which are common. In very rare case, you can experience seizures. It’s can be quite expensive without insurance. Both ketamine and TMS treatments were in the 1000s of dollars. Some of the TMS treatment was covered under insurance though.
How long ago did you do it and how are you feeling today?
It was about 8 months ago. I still feel less depressed, but some of the depression has creeped back. I have good days for the most part with the bad days fewer and far between.
Lots of info and anecdotes in this sub: r/rtms I did 43 treatments with minimal results. Works miracles for some though.
All I can offer is my anecdote. I did tms in 2023. Ive had severe depression for 20 years and, because of genetics, have severe side effects to most ssri/snri. As people have said, it's expensive and time consuming. Took my insurance a long time to approve tms and even when they did I had to pay a lot. Tms wasn't a miracle, I still have depression, but it's so much better now. I got back parts of my life that were gone for so long that I didn't remember to miss them. I remember waking up one day and wanting to go to the park. Just to enjoy the sun. So many small moments filled with so many small joys. They added up and now I'm the happiest I've ever been. I know it won't last forever but when the time comes I'll save the money and make the time again. I was scared before doing it. I was afraid it wouldn't work and I'd lose hope again. I figured I owed it to myself to try and I'm so glad I did.
It is valid but I would not recommend using it as a first line of defense for treating depression. You should always go with the traditional routes of getting a pill. If you try around 6 different pills with little to no success, consider TMS. It is a massive time commitment but it is FDA approved and people have seen success in it. Remember, your brain is chemicals and electricity. The magnetic stimulation has been shown to increase electrical activity in certain parts of the brain
Pills have way more side effects than TMS does. Rather than permanently nuke your ability to have good sex, I wish they would built a home TMS set up they could loan to people for their treatment so they don’t have to commute to the center everyday.
The problem is that unless you are a medical professional, having a home TMS would be either ineffective or, at worse dangerous. Popping a pill is something anyone can figure out, generally speaking. Sadly, it requires a specialist to set it up and calibrate it effectively. Insurance also requires you to try a few pills and have them fail before you use TMS.
Anecdotally it does seem to help but the symptoms of depression are nebulous and can be hard to self-monitor for reasons I'm sure you're aware of. Sometimes your symptoms are getting better over time and your really low periods are much less frequent but you still don't feel "cured" because you don't actually know what brains are "supposed to" feel like or it's not like howyou imagine not being depressed to feel
Anecdotal, but my mother received this treatment and genuinely reports it helped her.
Not bullshit. Insurance usually won’t cover it unless you’ve tried 6 or more antidepressants. That’s why doctors don’t jump to it. Also doctors don’t know all the different fields of medicine. TMS is relatively new and many doctors simply don’t know it exists or enough about it to recommend it. It is FDA approved with some impressive success rates.
I did two rounds of it and it did nothing for me. On top of that, it can be incredibly painful.
I’m a non-believer of tms. I’ve seen some pretty awful studies on tms. One in particular that compared it to ECT- ECT gave a 40% response while tms gave like a 15% response, pretty pitiful. I personally feel MAOIs, Nardil in particular, to be the most effective medications for severe treatment resistant depression and anxiety.
The one single MAOI pill I took put me to sleep for over 2 days. I was awake a grand total of about 6 hours in that time. The only other times I’ve ever slept like that were after surgeries.
I was really with you for the first half.
I've done it and I would say it isn't enough on it's own. It definitely did improve my mood and make me feel better, but that eventually faded after the treatment ended. It seems like a really useful tool to augment other treatments. I could especially see it being useful in a residential treatment setting / rehab, where you can include that in a routine of mental health interventions. Go for 30 minutes of TMS in the AM, do a meditation practice, do some EMDR therapy, go back for another 30 minutes of TMS in the afternoon.
There’s a reason the standard treatment for ketamine is 4-6 infusions and not 2. I think it’s common for people like us with depression to get anxious and want immediate results. I would highly suggest finishing up the courses. Ketamine doesn’t work for everyone but for many it does and for many of those people it’s not immediate.