BRAIN STIMULATION IN THE TREATMENT OF MAJOR DEPRESSION

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is an experimental medical procedure that is currently under investigation for its potential therapeutic value in major depression and other psychiatric and neurological disorders (Wassermann & Lisanby, 2001). The idea of using brain stimulation to treat depression dates back to the origins of ECT, and includes more recently developed techniques such as deep brain stimulation and vagus nerve stimulation. The value of brain stimulation in psychiatry is still most clearly seen in the, as yet, unparalleled efficacy of ECT in treating severe depression (American Psychiatric Association, 2001). While ECT is the most effective and most rapidly acting treatment for depression, it also causes a variable degree of undesirable cognitive side effects that limit its clinical utility and prevent many patients who could benefit from receiving this often life-saving treatment (McElhiney et al. 1995; Lisanby et al. 2000b). The search for an effective somatic treatment for medication resistant depression with fewer cognitive side effects than ECT has motivated much of the work with rTMS in psychiatry.