Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS)

The National Board of Health and Welfare has sent out new socialstyrelsen_2017_remiss_depressionangest (December 2016) for consultation. This has been widely debated during the beginning of 2017 and hopefully it will continue to do so.A completed document is due in the autumn. The document deals with which forms of treatment are considered to have "evidence", and for what. Psychodynamic therapies (PDT) are set against cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), above all, it is the usual. Other treatments recommended for certain conditions are EMDR and IPT. And then something called "rTMS", i.e. "Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation". To describe rTMS in the document:
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An alternative to drug therapy or ECT is repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS). The treatment method is relatively new and in recent years there has been research that shows that rTMS has a good effect in moderate to severe major depression and for people who have not had an effect of antidepressant treatment. The method appears to have mainly mild side effects and unlike in ECT, the patient may be awake during treatment. rTMS could be relevant for significantly more patients than the approximately 50 treated annually in Sweden today. This would require more clinics to invest in the technology or for more to be referred to the clinics that currently carry out rTMS. This will affect the allocation of resources for health care, p8
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Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is a method developed in the mid-1980s, but has only been used in individual clinics in Sweden. In recent years, however, scientific support has been strengthened and treatment has started to be used more, if only in some county councils.
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Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) means that an electromagnetic coil generates a magnetic field over the scalp, creating a current in the brain cells that are near the coil. This leads to brain cells being activated or inhibited in the left and right frontal lobe respectively. During the treatments, the person is awake. The treatment takes about an hour to complete and is usually given daily for four weeks, in total on 20 occasions. rTMS has mostly mild side effects, such as local scalp pain during treatment and transient headaches. Dizziness and fainting occur, but are much more uncommon. The most serious side effect is epileptic seizure, which is very rare.
Wikipedia has a detailed article on this relatively new form of treatment.
To those interested in religion, this may sound familiar?
Wikipedia also has a great article about Stanley Koren's "The God Helmet":
The God Helmet is an experimental apparatus originally called the Koren helmet after its inventor Stanley Koren. It was developed by Koren and neuroscientist Michael Persinger to study creativity, religious experience and the effects of subtle stimulation of the temporal lobes. Reports by participants of a "sensed presence" while wearing the God helmet brought public attention and resulted in several TV documentaries. The device has been used in Persinger's research in the field of neurotheology, the study of the neural correlations of religion and spirituality. The apparatus, placed on the head of an experimental subject, generates very weak magnetic fields, that Persinger refers to as "complex." Like other neural stimulation with low-intensity magnetic fields, these fields are approximately as strong as those generated by a land line telephone handset or an ordinary hair dryer, but far weaker than that of an ordinary refrigerator magnet and approximately a million times weaker than transcranial magnetic stimulation.
Here is another detailed website about the researcher Stanley Koren and his research because it wants to deepen.
