According to recent surveys, depression is on the rise, especially among the young. The pressures of modern life continue to put strains on our mental wellbeing, which is why it’s important to seek out new and effective remedies.
The battle against depression
The impact of depression can be debilitating. It can feel exhausting, compromise relationships and leave you incapable of functioning in daily life. Worse still, it’s still massively misunderstood. While physical injuries can be seen, psychological conditions are much harder to define and pin down. Only if you have suffered from depression yourself, can you truly understand its impact.
New treatments
One service is being offered by a company called Smart Brain and Health. It is termed as Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and could offer an effective new way to fight the condition. It uses a magnetic method to stimulate different parts of the brain. A magnetic coil can be placed near the person receiving the treatment and emits small electric currents which will stimulate the area of the brain close to the coil.
There is evidence to suggest it can be effective in diagnosing the effects of a stroke, movement impairment, and brain injuries. It’s also been used to treat conditions such as neuropathic pain, motor neurone disease and, most importantly, severe depression which had been resistant to other medication and forms of treatment.
No side effects
It’s the first FDA cleared treatment for depression that does not require any surgery or medication and comes with none of the negative side-effects associated with medication. This means there is no weight gain, sexual dysfunction, insomnia, drowsiness, memory problems or other side effects that have been associated with other medications.
The biggest barrier to this treatment is gaining further evidence of success which prove it to be more than a simple placebo. This evidence is gathering and the reports from clients suggest it can have an enormous impact on their quality of life.
TMS for depression
The treatment is also being refined for depression. These can use functional magnetic resonance imaging technologies to can allow doctors to actually see the thinking brain. It is used for neuro-navigation to accurately map out and target areas of the brain. Physicians can see through the scalp and map out the brain to accurately target and move the magnetic coils over those areas which can help with the treatment.
What the future holds
This is still in its relatively early stages and awareness levels are relatively low. As with any new, ground-breaking form of therapy, it will inevitably encounter resistance at various levels. There have been a plethora of alternative therapies aimed at alleviating depression and not all of them have been successful. However, this does have official backing. It’s an FDA approved method of treatment and is building up a body of success stories. As the evidence grows, the treatment will become more common and could open up a crucial new weapon in the fight against depression.