How Magnetic Brain Stimulation Helps Relieve Depression

One lab’s approach to transcranial magnetic stimulation has sent many patients with hard-to-treat depression into remission.

As the surgeon general has stated, we are in a mental health crisis. Depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide. And a major challenge is that depression can be difficult to treat, especially for people who don’t respond well to talk therapy or antidepressants.

But there’s a relatively new technique that seems to have a significant positive impact on people with treatment-resistant depression, even sending many of them into remission. It’s called transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and it uses magnets to stimulate certain areas of the brain that play a role in depression.

A team at Stanford developed a protocol for TMS that received FDA clearance in 2022 and, as of this year, it’s covered by Medicare. In a study from 2021, it was shown to improve remission rates for depression by up to 80%, with one patient calling it “a game changer.”

So how does TMS work, and could it change the way we treat depression and other mental illnesses?

Ira Flatow is joined by Dr. Nolan Williams, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University, where he’s also the director of the Stanford Brain Stimulation Lab. They talk about the advances that Williams’ team made with their SAINT protocol (Stanford Accelerated Intelligent Neuromodulation Therapy), patient experiences with the technology, and potential future applications of this technique.

Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.

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