Therapy for depression that gives hope without medication side effects

PELHAM, Ala. (WBMA) The United States faces an urgent mental health crisis.

A growing number of people are suffering from depression. However, many do not receive treatment.

Now there is a new treatment option for depression that offers some hope.

“For me, it would morph. One day everything would make me angry. One day I would feel like someone threw 20 weighted blankets at me and I can’t move,” Amanda Bacon said. “It’s immobilizing. It’s numbing. It’s I don’t care at all.

Amanda Bacon, 37, describes her battle with depression.

“It started when I was 17,” she said, “I was hit by a drunk driver and that sent me into post-traumatic stress disorder, which made the problems even worse. things. Since then, nothing has really rebalanced.”

She tried medication to treat her depression, but it didn’t seem to help.

“Some of the medications they gave me to improve my depression, instead of doing anything like that, made it worse to the point where I became suicidal,” Bacon said.

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Looking for another option, Bacon began NeuroStar’s transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS, therapy.

It is a non-drug, non-invasive therapy used 18 minutes per day, 5 days per week, totaling 36 treatments.

Dr. Annie Andrews is a psychiatrist at Alabama Psychiatry in Pelham.

It is actually a system that uses magnetic impulses in a certain part of the brain to regulate mood.

“It can be used for patients who have had good responses to medications but are still looking for further improvement or it can be used for patients who have had side effects and cannot tolerate the medications,” she said. she declared.

So far, about 50 patients have tried it.

“Most patients notice a significant change at the end of their treatment,” Andrews said. “It usually takes a few weeks of treatment before you really start to notice much improvement.”

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Bacon is on his second round of treatments. She said it made a difference.

“Once it’s over, what you get in return is worrying about things again,” she said.

This is a promising option because it works on her mental health.

If you’re like me and are resistant to treatment, whether you’ve been told or suspected it, it’s just one more thing to put in your hope pot.

You can learn more by visiting NeuroStar.com. NeuroStar TMS therapy is covered by most insurances.