BBC’s ‘Trust Me I’m a Doctor’ featured the potential use of rTMS – repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation – for treating PTSD.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder can be very difficult to treat. Traditional medication can have unpleasant side-effects and talking therapies do not work for everyone. Yet PTSD can have severe consequences on the patient’s daily quality of life.
The feature looked at how neuromodulation can change the way the brain’s networks function.
PTSD
Around 1 in 3 people who experience serious trauma or prolonged trauma will experience PTSD – Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Severe or prolonged trauma can impair the brain’s normal functioning – disrupting important chemical reactions, communication networks, hormone interactions and even storing and processing of memories. The effects can be devastating.
Scientists believe that areas of the brain activated during the trauma seem to remain in a state of hyperarousal beyond the traumatic situation itself. Symptoms include anxiety, worrying, confusing past/present, flashbacks and nightmares.
Neuromodulation
rTMS uses electromagnetic pulses to create small currents in the brain. Applying electromagnetic energy to specific areas of the brain in a certain way would appear to help ‘reset’ these areas and reduce hyperarousal which causes the symptoms of PTSD.
The treatment builds up an impact over a series of sessions in which the brain is stimulated using special magnetic equipment. The treatment has been approved for treating depression, but there are a number of further potential applications for TMS treatment, including PTSD.
TMS brain stimulation intervenes at a neural level, targeting specific areas of the brain to reestablish normal thought pathways.
It is non-invasive and requires no medication.
SMART TMS CLINICS
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) is a technological breakthrough in the treatment of depression with a variety of further potential treatment applications.
The treatment is now available in London, based at The Smart Clinics Brompton Cross (South Kensington).
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