Depression is one of the most prevalent diseases in the world. It has now become among the leading causes of disabilities on a worldwide scale. Depression is a severe mental health problem that requires immediate medical help. If we only take the US as an example to understand the severity of depression, then the numbers are alarming as more than 16million people in the US are living with depression.
The lack of knowledge about its possible treatments is one of the root causes of its prevalence. Depression patients are usually suggested anti-depressants and talk therapy in the initial stage. If they fail to respond to these two methods of treating depression, then they are recommended to go for other treatments, including Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS).
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) has gained a lot of popularity over the last few years because it is an FDA approved treatment that has shown effective results for treating depression. TMS is an entirely safe, non-invasive treatment with minor side effects, including temporary headache and muscle tingling. In rare cases or patients with head injury or surgery history may have more severe side effects like seizures. TMS treatment usually has 4-5 sessions a week for 4-6 weeks.
Although TMS is one of the most reliable depression treatments available, its relapse still has a question mark. Both the patients that have gone through the TMS therapy and the patients that are planning to get TMS to ask us questions like “what are the relapse chance of the TMS therapy?” “Till when will the anti-depressant effects will last?”
Giving a definite answer to these questions is not possible. Why? Because the anti-depressant effects differ from patient to patient. Some patients may face treatment relapse after a few months. On the other hand, some patients might require booster sessions every few weeks. It is advised to depression patients who have gone through TMS treatment to go for regular checkups to ensure that there are no symptoms of treatment relapse.
Nonetheless, if you see it from a broader perspective, TMS is one of the very few depression treatments that promise long-term results/benefits as compared to other anti-depressant treatments.
TMS is a newer depression treatment. It has been only 10 years since FDA has approved it for treating depression; this is the main reason why not all mental health providers offer Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) treatment, and most mental health providers that provide TMS treatment do not have enough experience. Due to limited treatment data, it is difficult to draw conclusions about TMS, its long-term benefits, and its expected relapse time.
However, TMS is a ray of hope for patients who, unfortunately, do not react to other depression treatments. Additionally, according to pieces of evidence, TMS has proven to be more beneficial at the prevention of relapse and recurrence of depression symptoms than other therapies.
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