A new fantastic medical treatment is changing lives. It just might change yours.
The Vietnam Veteran slept, snuggled up next to his wife. Each time noise from outside invaded the silence in their safe bedroom, his legs and arms moved erratically and he shouted words his wife couldn’t understand.
This had happened every night of his life since he returned from Vietnam in 1969. His sleep disruptions intensified his depression, and no medication or therapy had improved his problems one tiny iota.
Wanting to help him any way she could, his wife continually looked for any intervention that might help the man she loved. Finally, last year, she found research on something called “transcranial magnetic stimulation” (TMS), a new treatment that looked promising.
The couple visited his doctor, asking for help to gain access to this hopeful procedure. The wife called the Veterans’ Administration every other day, asking if authorization for the treatment had been granted yet.
Finally, three months ago, the VA approved the veteran for this procedure. Having endured the nine-week protocol, he sleeps like a baby. Now he smiles and laughs. For the first time since he returned from Vietnam, he actually feels happy.
What is this life-changing procedure?
- A psychiatrist uses a powerful magnet to locate the patient’s “dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex” (dlpfc), the part of the brain where feelings and memories are stored. He marks its location on a white cap on the patient’s head so the technicians will know where to place the magnet.
- Five days a week, the patient visits the hospital. TMS technicians place his white cap on his head, set the level of magnetic power that will transmit to the dlpfc, position the magnet, and turn it on. The magnet makes loud sounds for four minutes, and that day’s treatment is done. It is quick and painless.
- This magnetic stimulation rearranges the patient’s memories and feelings, like the defragmentation process works on a computer. After a few weeks, his mind begins to prioritize his memories and feelings, the positive ones naturally being the most important. Then his brain begins to delete some of the negative ones that are no longer needed.
- After this nine-week treatment, the patient lives in the present instead of the past with a significant reduction in depression.
Yes, TMS is time-consuming. It requires daily trips to the hospital for weeks. Sometimes, the patient must stay at a motel five days a week. But it is worth every penny and minute spent.
If you suffer from depression and/or PTSD, please consider committing to TMS—no matter what sacrifice you must make.
TMS is changing lives, and can change yours, too!
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To her it was a small mistake, but he snapped.
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To her it was a small mistake, but he snapped.
