TMS Therapy For Anxious Depression
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) emerges as a promising procedure for alleviating anxiety. By positioning an electromagnetic coil near the skull, TMS delivers magnetic pulses into the brain, affecting nerve cell activity in regions associated with mood regulation. This modulation of brain activity holds potential for ameliorating anxiety symptoms.
While occasional anxiety is common, persistent or frequent feelings of anxiety could indicate an underlying anxiety disorder. Although psychotherapy and medications are conventional treatments, individuals who do not respond adequately to these options may turn to TMS.
TMS harnesses a magnetic field to induce an electric current, targeting specific brain areas implicated in mental health conditions. In this article, we delve into the procedure of TMS and explore its potential as a treatment for anxiety.
TMS – Anxious Depression
Deep Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (Deep TMS™) is the FIRST TMS system FDA-cleared to safely and effectively reduce comorbid anxiety symptoms in adult patients with depression, also known as anxious depression.
Deep TMS treatment utilizes magnetic pulses generated by BrainsWay’s patented H1 Coil to stimulate neurons in areas of the brain associated with anxious depression, including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) – particularly the left side.
Multiple peer-reviewed clinical studies have found Deep TMS to be a highly effective treatment in treating anxiety comorbid with depression. In a multicenter, double-blind controlled study, Deep TMS showed significant reductions in anxiety symptoms through the acute course of TMS treatments and retained improvement through 16 weeks.
As a noninvasive procedure, Deep TMS is a well-tolerated treatment that does not cause any adverse or long-lasting side effects. It does not require a significant recovery period, and the 20-min treatment can easily be integrated into patient’s day-to-day schedule.
Try TMS – A Proven Alternative Treatment for Depression
The 9-question Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) is a diagnostic tool introduced in 2001 to screen adult patients in a primary care setting for the presence and severity of depression. It rates depression based on the self-administered Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ). The PHQ is part of Pfizer’s larger suite of trademarked products, called the Primary Care Evaluation of Mental Disorders (PRIME-MD). The PHQ-9 takes less than 3 minutes to complete and simply scores each of the 9 DSM-IV criteria for depression based on the mood module from the original PRIME-MD. Primary care providers frequently use the PHQ-9 to screen for depression in patients.
