Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)

Treating depression with TMS offers patients a unique opportunity to deal with depression symptoms without medication or side effects. NeuroStar TMS Therapy, is the first non-systemic and non-invasive transcranial magnetic stimulation device cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of patients with major depression who have not benefited from prior antidepressant treatment. And we are the first clinic in the Twin Cities area to offer this potentially life saving treatment, with over a decade of experience.

How does it work?

It is believed that you can alleviate the symptoms of depression by increasing the levels of neurotransmitters in the brain. To accomplish this, transcranial magnetic stimulation uses magnetic fields to produce very small electrical currents that activate cells within the brain that are thought to release these neurotransmitters. The NeuroStar TMS Therapy system accomplishes this through a treatment coil that is gently applied to the patient’s head. The NeuroStar TMS Therapy system’s treatment coil generates highly concentrated, magnetic fields that turn on and off very rapidly. These magnetic fields are the same type and strength as those produced by a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine.

The treatment coil is applied to the head above the left prefrontal cortex. The magnetic fields focus on the part of the brain involved in mood regulation, but do not affect the entire brain. They only reach about two to three centimeters into the brain directly beneath the treatment coil.