Yu-Ju Chou
Counseling and Clinical Psychology National Dong Hwa University
TMS therapy has been cleared by the United States as a noninvasive depression treatment. It is meant for adult patients who do not achieve satisfactory improvement from prior antidepressant medication. However, people who are interested in learning how TMS works rarely have an opportunity to see the whole picture. The present article aims to enhance their understanding on TMS treatment by reviewing current knowledge concerning TMS from theoretical bases to clinical interventions. This article provides an overview of the benefits of TMS and the importance of developing the technique for treatment against depression. In the first part, the study reviews the five subtypes and various causes of depression, metabolic abnormalities within the frontal lobe, and contemporary possible professional interventions. The second part of the article introduces the bases of TMS and its therapeutic potential for psychiatric disorders. Next, there is a clinical demonstration presenting the criteria and selection of participants, the settings of TMS parameters, the precise control of TMS interference to the prefrontal cortex, and the assessment of depressive symptoms. The fourth section discusses safety restrictions of TMS, its antidepressant efficacy accumulated to the present, and the follow-up studies of brain activations after treatment. Additionally, the article suggests a pre- and post-treatment cognitive assessment to be added to monitor subsequent changes of cognitive functioning closely related to the prefrontal cortex. Lastly, the article presents the most up-to-date developments of TMS.
Keywords: depression, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, prefrontal cortex, antidepressant effect