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How Does Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) Work in Brain to Treat Depression?

How Does Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) Work in Brain to Treat Depression? (1:00)

Researchers are continuing to research how transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) treats depression, using TMS machines set up to perform functional MRIs on the brain, says Tarique Perera, MD, a psychiatrist with Contemporary Care of Connecticut.

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There is understanding we need even more data to sort of approve it. So one of the things we do see is there are a couple of TMS machines that actually are hooked on to functional [xx] beautiful to see this. So you see, while the TMS is going on, you see the activation in the area just under the coil but then activation of deeper structures that are associated with the pressure.

So you see the circuit being activated in real time and we've also known that this circuit and in other studies, we have shown that this circuit is very important for treating depression. So, we have a greater fundamental understanding of how TMS works and any other treatment in my opinion, than any other treatment becomes of use..