Sacramento TMS is rapidly replacing antidepressants due to the lack of side effects and the increasing number of success stories – stories like that of sixty-year-old Barbara Baas who first received treatment in a research trial at the UT Medical Center in Dallas, Texas.. As a teenager, Baas had tried to kill herself. As an adult, she’s been through more than 15 different antidepressants with no reprieve. “I’m the poster child for mental illness,” Baas admits, saying that she’s felt “absolute hopelessness” throughout her entire life. “There were times when I couldn’t get through the day. I was in a pathetic state. When you’re in major depression, you have no energy, no joy. You spiral down and can’t concentrate or work.”

Like many y Sacramento TMS patients seeking treatment at Sacramento TMS, Baas suffered for nearly 45 years before she heard about Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation. For her treatment, she drove 115 miles, five days a week, for a month ½total of six weeks to

I am not sure what the “1/2” refers to. Typically treatment is 6 weeks.

participate in the clinical trials. During her noninvasive procedure, she received very mild neural stimulation that felt like a soft tapping. The mild electrical field – similar to that of an MRI scan – excited neurotransmitters in her left prefrontal cortex, which had previously been sluggish to respond. When the treatment was finished 40 minutes later, she simply got in her car and drove back home with no adverse side effects other than an occasional headache.

“It forces me to leave the house everyday, which is good for me,” Mrs. Baas admits, adding: “I am experiencing joy for the first time in years. I’m participating in life again. I went shopping at a new store near my home and realized it wasn’t drudgery. I actually enjoyed myself.” In short, Sacramento TMS offers depression relief for the millions people who haven’t responded to previous treatments, which is a wonderful thing.

In the last 10 years more and more medications are receiving FDA approval for the treatment of Major Depression. In recent years medications like aripiprozole (Abilify) and quetiapine (Seroquel) that traditionally were reserved for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder have received approval for add on treatment for Major Depression. More and more medications are being used to treat depression in outpatient psychiatry settings. In the research literature this is referred to as polypharmacy. How common is polypharmacy and is there any evidence that it works for depression?

In the United States polypharmacy has sky rocketed. In a recent study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry approximately 60% of individuals who visited their Sacramento psychiatrist left with 2 or more prescriptions while 33% of patients left with 3 or more prescriptions. Furthermore patients with a diagnosis of Major Depression were more likely to receive 2 or more prescriptions.

The evidence for polypharmacy is sparse. There are research trials which support the use of an antidepressant and an antipsychotic for difficult to treat depression as well as support for adding bupropion (Wellbutrin) in combination with certain antidepressants, but there is no research to support the 3 drug approaches that may of us are prescribing in trying to treat Major Depression. Furthermore, there is substantial research that indicates that there are substantial risks to polypharmacy including decreased tolerability and increased side effects and drug-drug interactions.

So am I advocating that we stop at 2 drugs when treating Major Depression? Certainly not, as some patients have reported improvement with a 3 drug approach. But shouldn’t we pursue all evidenced based treatments for Major Depression prior to using a non-researched treatment? Sacramento psychiatrist explains that Unfortunately there has been a significant increase in polypharmacy involving antidepressants and other drug combinations in the treatment of Major Depression. While some of these treatments are supported by clinical trials many combinations are not. This puts patients at increased risk, with little evidence for gains in quality of life.

Reference
Mojtabai R, Olfson M. National Trends in Psychotropic Medication Polypharmacy in Office-Based Psychiatry. Arch Gen Psychiatry 2010;67(1)26-36.

Many people suffering from depression see a Sacramento psychologist as their first stop. The good thing about a Sacramento psychologist office is that they have a wide range of tests and tools to analyze the level and type of depression you are suffering from. They may give personality tests, achievement and aptitude tests, Rorschach “Ink Blot” tests, neuropsychological tests to see how your brain reacts to different stimuli, observational tests and others. A good Sacramento psychologist will build rapport with the patient, ask a lot of questions and get to some of the root causes of the deep, crippling unhappiness.

However, there are also some limitations of seeing a Sacramento psychologist. For example, a Sacramento psychologist is not legally allowed to prescribe medication. Even though the Sacramento psychologist has been through six to ten years of college study to earn a doctorate, the course of study did not include as much medical school material and human biology. Their focus was more on philosophy, communication skills and sociology.

On the other hand, a Sacramento psychiatrist has completed full medical school training. After obtaining a Bachelor’s degree, the student must take the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) to get accepted into medical school. During med school, the student will then spend two years in rigorous courses like physiology, biology, biochemistry, anatomy, medical ethics and pharmacology. The student will also participate in supervised clinical settings before spending the next four years in residency training. Once licensed, a Sacramento psychiatrist can prescribe medication, as well as complete psychological counseling and refer patients to alternative therapies like Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation.

Much has changed over the years in the Sacramento psychiatrist practice. The old method of treating patients was to try out various antidepressants, antipsychotics or anticonvulsants until something finally worked. While some patients found relief this way, they experienced unpleasant side effects and discontinued use because they “just didn’t feel like themselves.” Later, many a Sacramento psychiatrist experimented with brain stimulation, knowing that – for whatever reason – mild seizures seemed to excite neuronal activity and give the brain just the stimulation it needed to feel better. However, they were dissatisfied with this approach because they needed to induce seizures, anesthetize patients and keep them overnight for observation. It seemed too risky.

Today, you will likely find a Sacramento psychologist or a Sacramento psychiatrist who has heard about Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, which is an improved technique that uses electromagnetic currents to stimulate the prefrontal cortex’s neurotransmitters. This 40-minute outpatient procedure is done without inducing a seizure, without anesthesia and without unwanted side effects. Half of the patients who undergo this therapy see at least a 50% decrease in their symptoms and another third say their lifelong depression has gone into complete remission. Generally you will need a referral from a Sacramento psychiatrist for this revolutionary new treatment that promises freedom from depression.

“How much does TMS cost?” This is a common question we get by phone at Sacramento TMS . To be honest we are hesitant to just answer. Why? Unfortunately many patients will only consider the cost of TMS and make a quick decision about the therapy. Asking the cost question ignores the cost of depression as well as the potential benefits of TMS. Many of us just ask the cost question with the products and services we buy. That is, we focus only on cost and forget about the potential effectiveness of the product.

Consider your car. If cost were the only factor what would you be driving? If cost were the only factor for us all we might be driving the same car! However cost is not everything. We consider safety, size, styling, resale and other factors when making a purchase. The effectiveness of the vehicle is important and perhaps as important as the sticker price.

I suggest a similar calculation with Sacramento TMS, which incorporates both cost and benefit. It is the same calculation that health economic analysts use when calculating cost effectiveness for new medical treatments. They calculate not only the cost of the intervention but also the cost savings incurred by the intervention, as patients get better. This is called “cost effectiveness.”

How would reducing the costs of depression result in savings for you? If your depression was 50% improved, what would be different about your life on a day-to-day basis? How about remission? In our Sacramento TMS consultation these are some of the most important questions I ask. When considering cost it is just as important to consider how your life will change for the better with Sacramento TMS .

So for those of you who are still reading, you are still likely wondering about the “sticker price” of this procedure. Sessions cost $350 to $600 depending on the area of the country you live in. This puts the cost of Sacramento TMS treatment between $7000 and $12000 depending on the number of sessions required to treat your depression. On average most individuals require 20 to 30 sessions in the acute phase of treatment. The number of sessions needed to maintain a response or keep depression in remission can vary. Can you put a monetary cost on your depression? What about the benefits if you recover from depression? If so, Sacramento TMS may actually result in a savings.

Have you ever used miracle grow or some other super charged supplement for your garden? What the commercials propose is that it is as easy as sprinkle and grow! Brain researchers think they have found a miracle grow for the brain. They call it BDNF (Brain-derived neurotrophic factor).

BDNF is a very special protein for our brains. BDNF supports existing neurons promoting their survival and preventing cell death. More importantly for us with older brains, BDNF promotes the growth and survival of new neurons as well as growth and differentiation of new connections between neurons. Put simply BDNF is thought to be one of the main reasons our brains are plastic and can change. That is, we have tremendous potential to adapt, learn and develop throughout our life because of the way BDNF works.

When we are depressed our BDNF levels decrease. If our depression persists these decreases in BDNF can cause important parts of our brain to shrink. Those with chronic depression have been shown to have atrophy in their hippocampus and limbic system and we think reduced expression of BDNF is one of the culprits. It is no surprise that when we are depressed it feels like we can’t think and our memory and planning abilities decrease, Sacramento psychiatrist explains.

Research shows that Sacramento TMS increases BDNF in the brain. Preclinical studies indicate Sacramento TMS treatment increases BDNF expression in the hippocampus. Furthermore Sacramento TMS seems to increase mRNA gene expression for BDNF, one of the genetic building blocks for this valuable protein. Increases in BDNF with TMS therapy may explain why we can start to space treatments out after 4-6 weeks of therapy. Daily treatment with Sacramto TMS may increase critical proteins for neuroplasticity but once these changes are set in motion and the neuroplastic changes occur, the need for TMS decreases. So is TMS like miracle grow for the brain? Perhaps. The effects of Sacramento TMS on BDNF certainly points to one of the beneficial changes of this potent antidepressant therapy. More information by Sacramento psychiatrist of the latest news soon on this blog.

Reference:
Muller MB, Toschi N, Kresse AE, Post A, Keck M. Long-term repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation increases the expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor and cholecystokinin mRNA, but not neuropeptide tyrosine mRNA in specific areas of rat brain. Neuropsychopharmacology 23:205-215, 2000.