For more information about Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation check out www.tmschicago.com
Dr. Carl Wahlstrom, (312) 782-8553
Depression and a new way to battle it. When drugs don't work ... one local doctor says he has his finger on the pulse of the true path to peace.
The drugs are among the best selling in the country with 18 million people suspected of suffering from depression. One anti-depressant doesn't always work ... many patients are on a combination of medications. John Raffael was one of them.
John Raffael, depression TMS patient: "I got my good feelings back and then I lost them so I started a regimen of every possible drug known to psychiatry and nothing worked."
John so very much wanted to close the door on depression.
John: "I didn't know what was happening to me it was the strangest feeling."
Psychiatrist Dr. Carl Wahlstrom offered John what may have seemed like a strange option: Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation or TMS.
Dr. Carl Wahlstrom: "It generates high frequency magnetic waves."
Patients sit in a chair for 40 minute sessions. There's soothing music at first pierced by the sound of therapy pulses. Like a woodpecker attacking a home ... the electrical currents cut through stagnant nerves that strangle good feelings.
Dr. Carl Wahlstrom, Psychiatrist: "It makes the nerves fire and then causes what's been referred to as neuro-modulation deeper in the brain in the mood centers of the brain."
At this point there's no real way to measure the nerve reaction ... only patients can guage the effect of TMS therapy.
John: "I have more energy, I want to do things, I take interest in a lot of things, I read again, I have friends that I want to do things with."
Different patients tell the same story. Four weeks of TMS treatment five days a week and most feel better.
Dr. Wahlstrom: "It's a very effective treatment in our experience with some very treatment resistant patients."
John: "After every other treatment didn't work, this one has. Life is just much more positive and much brighter."
Some patients may need a single booster treatment after six months. They report no side effects. The only downside is the cost ... about $300 per session, nearly $9,000 total. And even though the therapy is FDA approved, it is new so most often not covered by insurance.
Dr. Carl Wahlstrom, (312) 782-8553
Depression and a new way to battle it. When drugs don't work ... one local doctor says he has his finger on the pulse of the true path to peace.
The drugs are among the best selling in the country with 18 million people suspected of suffering from depression. One anti-depressant doesn't always work ... many patients are on a combination of medications. John Raffael was one of them.
John Raffael, depression TMS patient: "I got my good feelings back and then I lost them so I started a regimen of every possible drug known to psychiatry and nothing worked."
John so very much wanted to close the door on depression.
John: "I didn't know what was happening to me it was the strangest feeling."
Psychiatrist Dr. Carl Wahlstrom offered John what may have seemed like a strange option: Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation or TMS.
Dr. Carl Wahlstrom: "It generates high frequency magnetic waves."
Patients sit in a chair for 40 minute sessions. There's soothing music at first pierced by the sound of therapy pulses. Like a woodpecker attacking a home ... the electrical currents cut through stagnant nerves that strangle good feelings.
Dr. Carl Wahlstrom, Psychiatrist: "It makes the nerves fire and then causes what's been referred to as neuro-modulation deeper in the brain in the mood centers of the brain."
At this point there's no real way to measure the nerve reaction ... only patients can guage the effect of TMS therapy.
John: "I have more energy, I want to do things, I take interest in a lot of things, I read again, I have friends that I want to do things with."
Different patients tell the same story. Four weeks of TMS treatment five days a week and most feel better.
Dr. Wahlstrom: "It's a very effective treatment in our experience with some very treatment resistant patients."
John: "After every other treatment didn't work, this one has. Life is just much more positive and much brighter."
Some patients may need a single booster treatment after six months. They report no side effects. The only downside is the cost ... about $300 per session, nearly $9,000 total. And even though the therapy is FDA approved, it is new so most often not covered by insurance.
