NARSAD Grantee Leads New Study Proving Efficacy of TMS for Depression

NARSAD Grantee Linda Carpenter, M.D., is the lead author of a newly published study that demonstrates for the first time that transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), which uses an external magnet to non-invasively stimulate the left prefrontal cortex of the brain, is an effective treatment for depression in real-life clinical practice settings. The study was published online in the June 11, 2012 edition of Depression and Anxiety.

The development of TMS as a treatment for severely depressed patients was pioneered by NARSAD Grantee and Scientific Council member Mark George, M.D.

Dr. Carpenter is the Chief of the Mood Disorders Program and the Neuromodulation Clinic at Butler Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island. She was the recipient of a NARSAD Young Investigator Grant for her study of "Regulation of Cerebrospinal Fluid Corticotrophin Releasing Factor in Normal Healthy Subjects and Depressed Patients."

In this new study, Dr. Carpenter and her colleagues reviewed outcomes data from 307 patients, from 42 clinical TMS practice sites, who still had symptoms of major depression even after being treated with antidepressant medications. Noting that previous studies led to the the FDA to approve TMS as a treatment for depression in 2008, Dr. Carpenter said "naturalistic studies like ours, which provide scrutiny of real-life patient outcomes when TMS therapy is given in actual clinical practice settings, are the next step in further understanding the effectiveness of TMS."

TMS was pioneered by NARSAD Investigator and Scientific Council member Mark George, M.D.

Learn more about TMS and other new technologies pioneered by the Foundation.

Read More about Dr. Carpenter's Study on TMS