News
The latest developments in TMS research and treatment, curated by our team.
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Dr. Sarah Tremblay worked tirelessly for two years to bring TMS to The Royal in Ottawa
Ottawa Business Journal
This dream of Dr. Tremblay’s became a reality in January 2020. The Royal’s new rTMS clinical-research platform is the first of its kind in the Ottawa region and is quickly becoming a much sought-after treatment for depression. Tremblay states, “Neuromodulation offers us a whole new way of looking at mental health treatment, where we can identify malfunctioning circuits in the brain and effectively treat them in a non-drug, non-invasive way.”
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Calgary psychiatrist Dr. Lisa Harpur talks about the Rockyview TMS Clinic
Global News
There are a total of five RTMS clinics in Alberta: two in Calgary, two in Edmonton and one in Ponoka. Harpur said there is an ongoing initiative to bring more programs to other areas of the province but that there is currently a lack of funding to do so.
The five clinics have been working together to try to secure those funds. Each has been providing the same treatment and then collecting data from questionnaires that they have patients fill out at follow-up visits.
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Two Nova Scotia hospitals will soon offer TMS treatment for depression, PTSD and other mental health disorders
CBC
The QEII Foundation in Halifax said a donation of more than $400,000 from Bell’s Let’s Talk campaign allowed it to reach its goal of $759,000 to launch the new treatment program.
Dr. Michael Flynn, a psychiatrist at the Nova Scotia Hospital is quoted “”The key is it’s now accessible. You can have the best treatment, but if you can’t access it, it’s not being optimized.”
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Dr. Fidel Rogriguez of the Ninet Clinic at University of British Columbia and Dr. Jonathan Downar of the rTMS Clinic at UHN in Toronto speak to the effectiveness of an accelerated TMS protocol.
CTVNews
The pandemic has reduced access to ECT treatment for depressed patients as it is hospital based, require the use of sedation, and health care providers use of full PPE. In both Toronto and Vancouver accelerated TMS is proving to be effective for these patients, with significantly reduced side effects.
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Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation to Address Mild Cognitive Impairment in the Elderly: A Randomized Controlled Study, 2015
Hindawi
From the study: “Even though some older adults perform as well as young adults [15], memory processing declines with senescence, particularly in episodic memory tasks, which involve encoding and retrieval of information.
Such cognitive deficits, even mild, cause great distress to the elderly with MCI, who feel that their autonomy, independence, and ability to lead high-quality lives are negatively affected. These impairments are often considered the most debilitating aspect of aging
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) emerges as a therapeutic tool with clinical benefits in neurological and psychiatric diseases. The method is based on generating a rapidly variable magnetic field over the scalp in awake subjects, which induces a transitory electric current in the cortical surface and modulating neuronal function directly underneath the coil, and in connected brain regions.”