This is the first FDA-cleared treatment for obsessive compulsive disorder in a decade. OCD used to be jokingly called “Death Valley” as it is known that long periods of time tend to pass before more treatments are offered and OCD is notorious for how stubborn the symptoms can be. The Hackensack office of Brainsway got a barrage of phone calls, none seemingly from the same area code after news let out of this new and efficacious treatment using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) for OCD. Even better, this treatment has such few side effects and is well tolerated by the vast majority of patients. OCD can be more common than most people think at first and symptoms unfortunately tend to be long lasting, characterized by reoccurring thoughts and behaviors that are difficult to resist.
Chief medical officer, Dr. Aron Tendler, estimates about 2.3% of the population will suffer from this ailment at some point in their lives and it tends to have a waxing and waning course. He states that only a handful of medications are FDA approved for treatment of OCD and a subset of psychotherapy modalities. Up to half of patients do not see adequate results.
So how does it work? It is suggested by research that the CSTC circuit can be overactive in OCD and specifically can involve the medial prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex. Delivery of high frequency magnetic pulses can been found to disrupt these hyper-synchronized circuits and treatment is paired with a degree of exposure therapy for more robust responses.
At our office, we are now proud to offer this treatment!
More information about other uses for deep TMS are discussed at this article!
https://www.roi-nj.com/2019/02/11/healthcare/attractive-possibility-brainsways-magnetic-stim-device-could-be-game-changer-for-ocd/