The TMS Solutions' Depression & Treatment Blog 

The time change is behind us, but the effects are beginning to kick in.  Depending on where you live, you may be experiencing the Winter Blues due to the lack of sunlight.  This seasonal change can have dramatic effects on your mood.

In July of 2018, NPR's Heard On All Things Considered ran this amazing story of a woman's life with autism spectrum disorder.  The interview walks through her early life, subsequent adult struggles with the disease and finally, her transformation after TMS Therapy treatment.

Invisibilia: An Experiment Helps One Woman See The World In A New Way

 In a June 1st article in Vantage on the U.S. Department website entitled, “Veterans with Post Traumatic

 Stress Disorder (PTSD) treated with Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation”, author Tracy Weistreich spoke with caregivers at the VA Center for Compassionate Care Innovation (CCI). They are using Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) and NeuroStar's TMS Therapy® at their Providence VA Medical Center in Rhode Island.

We may be well into July, but May was Mental Health Awareness month, but just because the month is over, doesn't mean the problem has gone away. The news is full of celebrities, athletes and people we know dealing with depression and other forms of mental illness. Lately news of suicides of well known, highly visible people have taken over the headlines.  According to the American Society for Suicide Prevention, suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the US, with over 44,000 Americans dying each year.

If you look deeper at the underlying roots of suicide, according to Mental Health America, depression is the leading cause for 30-70% of these deaths. It's fairly accurate to say that depression is literally killing us, at huge numbers, at a huge cost financially, and at an even greater cost to those left behind and affected by their loss.

With the World Clock ticking, there are currently about 7.6 billion people in the world. More than 300 million of these people worldwide are living with depression. Until about 2008, medication and talk therapy have been the most effective treatments for patients. That was the year the FDA cleared NeuroStar's TMS Therapy® device for treating medication resistant depression.

"From what I saw as a kid, being an adult looked miserable," Dagostino said. "I saw nothing good out of growing up and continuing to live." 

This is a quote from Laura Zenga.  We hear these kind of statements often and many people like Laura are looking for a solution to their depression.  The following article by Alana Melanson from the LowellSun News is about the journey of a young women to finding a solution to her depression.

"LITTLETON, MA -- Laura Zenga settled into the big chair, reminiscent of one found in a dentist's office, in a room at the New England Center for Mental Health last week.

The treatment coordinator, Victoria Cruz-Howsare, accessed her brain map and moved the arm of the NeuroStar machine, placing the portion housing the magnetic coil on Zenga's head. As the 37-minute timer began to tick down, a tapping noise emerged as the machine delivered bursts of magnetic pulses to Zenga's neurons, activating the neurotransmitters she has been lacking as a result of depression.

"The best way that I can describe it is that it's kind of like a small woodpecker in one spot, but it doesn't hurt that much," Zenga said. "You get used to it."