Research Hit: Magnetic Brain Stimulation Improves Depression Rapidly
Can we stimulate the brain with magnets?
Yes, indeed we can. This is quite an old technique (known as transcranial magnetic stimulation or TMS) whereby strong magnetic fields can be applied to the brain, and selectively to brain regions, to either activate or suppress activity depending on the strength of the magnetic field. It has long been used in research and more recently for therapeutic purposes.
I didn’t know that - when is it used?
Well, in this case it is a listed therapy for depression - notably for those with drug resistant depression. What was novel about this research is how it was used.
What was the difference?
A standard therapy in the UK is to activate the left prefrontal cortex because this is associated with depression over 20 sessions and over 20-30 days. This is known to be reasonably effective. But of course, it takes about a month and in some cases this may be a long time - particularly for those who are feeling suicidal.
And how was this therapy different?
Hailun Cui et al. of the University of Cambridge tried different protocols, One was to give four sessions a day and another was to also target a region in the right hemisphere (right orbitofrontal cortex) simultaneously.
And did this work?
Yes it did, the accelerated process targeting two regions of the brain was 2-3 times as effective as targeting a single brain region. Ten weeks laters the benefits were still present and about 50% stronger in the double brain region group.
So much faster and much more effective.
Yes that’s good news for those with drug resistant depression!
Reference
Hailun Cui, Hui Ding, Lingyan Hu, et al.
A novel dual-site OFC-dlPFC accelerated repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation for depression: a pilot randomized controlled study.
Psychological Medicine, 2024; 1
DOI: 10.1017/S0033291724002289