Depression Treatment: Get Help with TMS Therapy in New Orleans
Depression treatment is often prescribed through traditional anti-depressant medications. However, for many folks in our New Orleans community, medication doesn't provide the level of help or symptom relief needed to live their daily life in a normal way.
The benefit of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) is this therapy often provides great depression help and symptom relief to those for whom medication hasn't. TMS also requires no downtime and has very few potential side effects. Below, you'll learn more about how TMS works for Major Depression treatment right here at the TMS Center of New Orleans.
During a Depression Treatment Session in New Orleans
TMS THERAPY BENEFITS
TMS is free from common antidepressant drug side effects. In addition, it offers these benefits:
- Does not affect cognitive function
- Does not require anesthetics
- Allows the patient to resume daily activities immediately
- Allows for treatment with or without antidepressants (determined by a physician)
TREATMENT SESSION
You may feel a slight tapping on the head due to the magnetic pulses on the scalp’s surface. You are relaxed and seated in a comfortable chair. Oftentimes, patients will listen to music or watch television during treatment.
The Science of TMS for Depression Treatment
The TMS procedure is rooted in electromagnetic currents from the coil that activate specific neurotransmitters (serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine) believed to be associated with symptoms of depression. The coil is placed on the side of your head (the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, to be exact). Studies have shown that this part of the brain can be under-active in individuals with major depression.
Similar to a Magnetic Resonance Imaging machine (MRI), the TMS coil delivers short rapid pulses. These pulses only reach a few centimeters into the brain directly beneath the coil as to not affect the entire brain. As each magnetic pulse passes through the skull and into the brain, this induces a brief activity of brain cells directly under the treatment coil. Rapid, repetitive TMS temporarily increases blood flow and metabolism in the brain related to where the coil is placed.
The TMS Center of New Orleans Treatment Equipment
The TMS machine we use completes a depression treatment session in as little as 3 minutes. Because older machines take much longer to administer the same treatment, we greatly reduce the time commitment for our New Orleans-area patients. Because we use the most up-to-date and versatile machine available, we can offer a cloud-based patient care portal to our patients. As a result, we use the only TMS machine with these advanced features in the entire Gulf South at the time of this writing (mid-2018).
Are you a potential candidate for TMS?