Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine claim that they have managed to treat depression in patients by stimulating their brains using magnets. In a new study, the researchers found that around 80% of patients had experienced remission of their depression after the procedure, which is known as Stanford neuromodulation therapy (SNT).
The technique is an altered version of transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and works by delivering high doses of magnetic pulses into a person’s brain using a device that features magnetic coils fitted outside of their skull. It is a one-of-its-kind treatment that could be useful for many people.
Building on previous research
The treatment takes only five days and is customized to each patient based on an MRI scan which reduces the timeline of rTMS treatment from weeks to days.
“We were very interested in trying to solve psychiatric issues in an emergency setting, where we’re treating people in the time course of days,” Nolan Williams, the study’s co-author told Gizmodo. “And so we figured out a way, based off of human neuroscience principles, to compress stimulation from a six-week schedule into a single day.”
The work dwells on a similar study that was published last year, which found that SNT helped relieve depression in 90 percent of participants. That means that they no longer met the medical criteria for acute depression, reports Gizmodo.
Early research showed promising results
The results came out promising. One 60-year-old patient named Tommy Van Brocklin, who wasn’t a part of the latest study, told Gizmodo how he suffered from depression since a young age – and even had constant thoughts of suicide. In Sept 2021, he underwent SNT as part of the research.
“By the third day, everything started to kick in. And it just got better and better the next few days,” Brocklin told Gizmodo. “I’ve been home now since about mid-September and all the benefits have stayed with me, and I feel much better. I’m sleeping; I’m no longer suicidal. I just have a different outlook on the world and my life, in a positive way.”
