Welcome back to Reading the Research, where I trawl the Internet to find noteworthy research on autism and related subjects, then discuss it in brief with bits from my own life, research, and observations.
Today's article is what I've been waiting to see since I realized how effective LENS was in treating my depression and anxiety, and since I read Switched On by John Elder Robison.
Stanford has developed a form of TMS, or trans-cranial magnetic stimulation, which treats depression. It does so in a relatively short amount of time, without medication or need to spend money over a lifetime. And this version showed a 90% success rate, on subjects that no other form of therapy could help.
I've talked about the medication roulette, where people with depression spend copious amounts of money buying pills they'll need to take for weeks to find out if they'll help. Often they don't, and then you need more pills, a different SSRI or other anti-depressant. Repeat until your life implodes, the side effects wreck you, you run out of money, or you run out of options. It's a very ugly, messy cycle.
Neurofeedback and other forms of brain stimulation don't do that to you. Some version of it can have you coming back week after week, but with others, like this one, you pay for a week's worth of sessions and the effects linger for years, or even a lifetime. The up front cost might be expensive, but you save money, time, and suffering in the long run.
This form of TMS will need a LOT more testing, on a larger range of subjects. It will not likely keep the 90% success rate in larger populations. Still, it's an incredibly promising start, and I'm hopeful that technology like this will become the gold standard for treating depression.
(Pst! If you like seeing the latest autism-relevant research, visit my Twitter, which has links and brief comments on studies that were interesting, but didn't get a whole Reading the Research article about them.)
Today's article is what I've been waiting to see since I realized how effective LENS was in treating my depression and anxiety, and since I read Switched On by John Elder Robison.
Stanford has developed a form of TMS, or trans-cranial magnetic stimulation, which treats depression. It does so in a relatively short amount of time, without medication or need to spend money over a lifetime. And this version showed a 90% success rate, on subjects that no other form of therapy could help.
I've talked about the medication roulette, where people with depression spend copious amounts of money buying pills they'll need to take for weeks to find out if they'll help. Often they don't, and then you need more pills, a different SSRI or other anti-depressant. Repeat until your life implodes, the side effects wreck you, you run out of money, or you run out of options. It's a very ugly, messy cycle.
Neurofeedback and other forms of brain stimulation don't do that to you. Some version of it can have you coming back week after week, but with others, like this one, you pay for a week's worth of sessions and the effects linger for years, or even a lifetime. The up front cost might be expensive, but you save money, time, and suffering in the long run.
This form of TMS will need a LOT more testing, on a larger range of subjects. It will not likely keep the 90% success rate in larger populations. Still, it's an incredibly promising start, and I'm hopeful that technology like this will become the gold standard for treating depression.
(Pst! If you like seeing the latest autism-relevant research, visit my Twitter, which has links and brief comments on studies that were interesting, but didn't get a whole Reading the Research article about them.)
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