Electroconvulsive therapy is now considered the last hope for the most severe depression. But it can still impair memory weeks after treatment. A gentle alternative appears to be so-called “transcranial magnetic stimulation.” This is the conclusion reached by doctors and psychologists from the University Hospital of Bonn in an article published in the British Journal of Psychiatry. Learn more about magnetic field therapy for depression here.
Conventional treatment for depression
Depression is now considered to be easily treatable: psychotherapy or medication can help most sufferers out of a depressive episode. However, about five percent of all patients sink so deeply into the gloom that they no longer respond to these healing methods. Because depression is one of the most common mental illnesses – affecting one in six people at least once in their lifetime – this is a large number.
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT).
In these cases, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is considered a treatment of choice. In this procedure, the ill person is put under anesthesia. Doctors then pass pulses of electricity through his head through two electrodes, triggering an epileptic seizure. This alters brain chemistry in the frontal area, a region that regulates affect and controls attention, among other things.
Effective therapy – bad image
One in two patients who previously failed to respond to other treatments gets so much better after a treatment series of a few weeks that they can be treated further with medication or psychotherapy. Therefore, this electroconvulsive therapy is still used today for severely depressed patients. Nevertheless, the public image of this method was very negative for a long time – not least thanks to the classic film “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”. In it, a psychiatric inmate is “subdued” with ECT treatment because of his rebellious behavior. Today’s form of ECT, however, is considered well tolerated.
Side effect of ECT: memory impairment
However, the treatment can still impair memory weeks later. This is because the current flow is not targeted enough, but also hits the hippocampus, the “memory center” in our brain. These memory impairments usually regress slowly, but patients understandably often experience them as disturbing.
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS).
An alternative might be another treatment method that has few side effects: In “transcranial magnetic stimulation” (TMS), doctors place a coil on the patient’s forehead. This generates a strong pulsating magnetic field for a few minutes, which in turn causes a current flow in the brain. However, this is so small that it does not trigger an epileptic seizure. The patient experiences the painless treatment while fully conscious.
Study results on magnetic field therapy
The Bonn physicians treated a total of 30 severely depressed patients with either electroconvulsive therapy or magnetic stimulation. Both methods worked about equally well: every second sick person felt a significant mood lift one week after the treatment series. “Admittedly, the groups were not randomly assigned, which limits the significance,” study leader Wagner qualifies. “Also, the number of participants is too small for us to make conclusive statements about efficacy.” But other studies also speak for the mood-improving effect of magnetic stimulation.
Memory remains unimpaired with magnetic stimulation
Patients treated with magnetic stimulation performed as well or even better in various memory tests afterward than before therapy. In contrast, memory deteriorated in participants in the ECT group, psychologist Svenja Schulze-Rauschenbach found.
Magnetic field therapy as a new form of therapy for depression
Nevertheless, magnetic stimulation is not a miracle cure, especially since – like ECT – it does not permanently conquer depression. Patients still need to continue treatment with other methods afterward. “TMS is only a new therapeutic tool that cannot help with all depressions,” says Michael Wagner, defending himself against too high expectations. Only a few institutions in Germany are testing the effect of this relatively new treatment method against severe depression.On the horizon, however, new devices are already beckoning that could be even more effective. The magnetic field they generate is so strong that it can also trigger an epileptic seizure. Unlike ECT, however, the current flow in magnetic seizure therapy remains confined to the “mood region” in the brain – the hippocampus remains unaffected.
