Could targeted magnetic pulse treatment offer new hope in treating depression?

Researchers are to investigate whether an innovative new treatment that targets areas of the brain with magnetic pulses could offer hope to the millions of people around the world who suffer from depression. The study, led by the University of Nottingham and funded with more than £1.8 million from an Medical Research Council and NIHR partnership, with support from the recently established NIHR Nottingham Biomedical Research Centre, will examine the use of theta-burst stimulation (TBS) to find out whether it could help those people with depression for whom other treatments have proved ineffective. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 350 million people suffer from depression worldwide. It is the second leading cause of disability, and suicide from depression is the biggest killer in people aged 15 to 49 years old. Antidepressants and talking therapies help two-thirds of people with depression, but the remaining third have 'treatment resistant depression'. Until recently, some of these patients were offered electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), a treatment in which an electric current is sent through the brain while under a general anaesthetic to trigger an epileptic seizure to relieve the symptoms of some mental health problems. However, associated potential side effects such as memory loss deter many patients from having the treatment.