MAGNETIC DEPRESSION TREATMENT

For the 30 percent of clinically depressed people who don't respond to medication, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently approved a new, noninvasive treatment option. With NeuroStar TMS, a wand held over the head delivers highly focused magnetic pulses to a part of the brain that's been linked to depression. A typical course of treatment would involve 40-minute sessions at a psychiatrist's office five times a week for four to six weeks. In two clinical trials, roughly half of patients said that their symptoms were reduced by at least 50 percent.