UW News

June 16, 1999

Magnetic stimulation offers new hope for people with depression

Magnetic stimulation–a method of stimulating a part of the brain involved with mood regulation–offers new hope for people whose depression has failed to be helped by medications. Harborview Medical Center is one of five centers in U.S. to study magnetic stimulation as an alternative to anti-depressant medications and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT).

Magnetic stimulation is easily able to penetrate skin and bone and create a much more localized stimulus with a lesser charge than ECT, according to Dr. David Avery, University of Washington associate professor of psychiatry. Initial data also show that magnetic stimulation causes no memory loss and has fewer side effects.

“The hope is that magnetic stimulation will be as effective as ECT in getting people out of a depression,” Avery explains. “Although were at an early stage of this research, results thus far are promising.”

Magnetic stimulation works by generating a magnetic field and applying an electrical stimulus to the brains frontal lobes, located in the forehead. An earlier study, involving depressed subjects who had proven resistant to other therapies, showed patients receiving magnetic stimulation have improvement in a standard depression rating.

Patients in the Harborview study will receive magnetic stimulation or a placebo stimulus. Subjects will be people whose depression has failed to improve after taking medication (or who were intolerant to medication) and who are willing to try magnetic stimulation rather than continue taking medication.