Page 249 - Total War on PTSD

surgeries and TMS does not require any sedation. TMS is administered in the TMS prescribing psychiatrist office. In fact, all a patient has to do is sit in a chair and relax.
Nothing enters your bloodstream. There are no medications administered. There is no need for medications to circulate throughout your body, therefore TMS does not impair your cognitive abilities. TMS is perhaps the least intrusive form of depression therapy available.
Once the TMS device is positioned, it creates a magnetic pulse that targets the left pre-frontal cortex. This pulse comes in rapid succession and is thought to stimulate regions of the brain that are linked to emotion. In depressed patients, these emotion-baring regions are shown to be very non-responsive compared to healthy patients.
Each treatment involves the gentle placement of the TMS coil against the patient's head. Over a 19-minute period, pulses are delivered in 30-second intervals. These pulses feel like tapping on the scalp. The tapping should not be bothersome and the technician can make adjustments if it is uncomfortable. TMS therapy also produces a loud clicking sound, so earplugs are recommended and usually provided.
Theta Burst Stimulation (TBS)
TBS specifically uses magnetic pulses to mimic the natural rhythms of activity in the neurons
of the brain. It rouses areas of the brain and helps relieve depression. It is a recently FDA approved modality and is a new form of TMS. TBS for depression treatment has been established as equally efficacious and safe as compared to high frequency TMS.
TBS is a patterned form of TMS. The standard Theta Burst pattern consists of three bursts of pulses given at 50Hz and repeated every 200 ms. With its reduced treatment time of just six minutes, TBS depression treatment allows for a higher throughput of patients compared to what
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