Depression treatment in Denver

Are you looking for Depression treatment in Denver, Colorado? Here at Front Range TMS, we offer depression treatment in Denver using a non-invasive, drug-free method called TMS or transcranial magnetic stimulation. This is an innovative/cutting edge treatment for major depressive disorder. Some patients have received relief from their depression after years of trying medications and psychotherapy. It works through a different mechanism by repetitively stimulating a specific area of your brain known as the “depression center.” After many treatments, these treatments lead to improvement in your depression.

This is a FDA approved method for treating depression and tens of thousands of people have been successfully treated through TMS. TMS utilizes a magnetic field which rapidly pulses which causes a current in the targeted area of the brain. This is what leads to the stimulation and the treatment area which over times leads to relief of depressive symptoms. Some patients have complete remission of their depression in 20 sessions. Others take up to 36 sessions to get complete remission of their symptoms. It is very difficult to predict what kind of responder that you will be until you try TMS treatment. This is very similar to medications. You really don’t know how you will respond to medications until you try it. They have genetic testing, but even the results don’t adequately predict if you will respond well or not.

We hope that you consider us for your depression treatment in Denver. We offer the personal touch that is often lost in large clinics. If you would like to get started, please contact us here to schedule a free consultation with Dr. Tanner to go over how it works and your treatment goals. If you have any concerns, you can e-mail us, and we will get back to you as soon as we can.

TMS Colorado

Searching for a TMS Colorado clinic? At Front Range TMS, we offer citizens of Colorado treatment for their depression. This includes treatment resistant depression. There are a few TMS Colorado clinics, but we feel that we add the personal touch and experience that many people are looking for. To give you an idea of what you will find at our TMS Colorado clinic, you will first do a consultation session with Dr. Tanner. He will talk to you about your concerns and goals of treatment. If you would like to use insurance (Currently accepting Blue Cross / Blue Shield, Cigna, Medicare, United HealthCare), then prior authorization with the insurance companies will be attempted. Once approved, Dr. Tanner will perform the initial TMS session by “mapping” or locating the correct spot of your brain for treatment. Dr. Tanner will then initiate the first treatment which will be 19 minutes.

After the first treatment, you will come back the next day to complete you subsequent treatments. One of Dr. Tanner’s TMS technicians will be administering the treatment under the direct supervision of Dr. Tanner who will always be readily available if the need arises. Prior to each session, you will complete a depression survey to monitor your progress. Depending on your response, the total number of sessions will vary between 20-36 sessions.

If you have any questions on the process, we would love to hear from you. You can contact us by clicking here or clicking on the “Contact Us” link at the top of the webpage. You can also take a look at our FAQs located here or browse all of the posts that have been done. We look forward to working with you in the future and hope that we can be a part of helping you with your mental health goals.

TMS Depression

Are you looking for information regarding TMS depression? TMS is an innovative, FDA approved, cutting edge technology to treat depression. TMS depression is done by repetitively stimulating the brain with pulses in the “depression center” area of the brain known as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Over 20-30 sessions the depression begins to dissipate which is the goal of TMS depression treatment.

Many people ask how this is done. The exact mechanism is not known. However, psychiatrists have been using ECT (Electroconvulsive therapy) for over a hundred years. This stimulates the brain through an electrical pulse. Instead of using an electrical impulse to stimulate the brain, TMS utilizes a magnetic pulse to stimulate the brain. ECT is known as one of the most effective treatments for treatment resistant depression, so it not so far of a stretch to think that TMS can be an effective treatment for depression.

There have been enough effective studies with TMS which showed that TMS treatment is more effective than “sham” treatments that the FDA approved this for the treatment of major depressive disorder. FDA stands for the Food and Drug Administration in case you were curious. They are the federal agency that regulates drugs in the United States. Right now there are a few disorders that are FDA approved for TMS treatment which includes major depressive disorder and OCD. There are promising results for the treatment of tinnitis, schizophrenia, bipolar depression, anhedonia, PTSD, anxiety disorders. Right now the treatment of these disorders are considered experimental.

If you would like to learn more and consult with Dr. Tanner regarding the possibility of TMS helping you with your symptoms, then please contact Front Range TMS here.

Thank you for reading. E-mail us if you have any questions about TMS or transcranial magnetic stimulation, and we would be happy to talk to you about this.

rTMS

rTMS stands for “repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation.” This is commonly abbreviated to just “TMS” but technically the ‘r’ is added to convey that the stimulation received is repetitive. Depending on the protocol, the patient will receive a stimulation for 4 seconds followed by a break and then stimulated again for another 4 seconds and again followed by a break until the treatment is completed.

So, this is why the ‘r’ is added to TMS to create rTMS. rTMS has been FDA approved for the treatment of major depressive disorder. The FDA approved treatment protocol for rTMS is the following:

Intensity: 120% of motor threshold
Frequency: 10 Hz
Train duration: 4 seconds (how long the stimulation is administered) at 10 pulses a second for a total of 40 pulses
The Intertrain interval or break: 11 second
Number or trains per sessions: 75 trains

The total duration of the treatment is 18 min 26 seconds with a total of 3000 pulses.

As you can see from above, the number of “trains” means the number of times that the patient is repeatedly stimulated. In the above FDA approved protocol, the number is 75 times. Thus, the reason why TMS is commonly given the ‘r’ before it as rTMS.

If you would like to learn more about TMS in general, you can continue to read on our site. If you would like to schedule for a free consultation with Dr. Tanner to discuss how TMS can benefit you, then please give us a call to schedule this. Dr. Tanner can go over all of your questions and concerns about TMS treatment and therapy. If you would like to get started, you can find our contact  information here.

Therapy for depression

There is a lot of therapy for depression which can include medications, psychotherapy, exercise, and non-invasive treatment such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (or TMS or rTMS). Many people do not like the side effects of medications as it can cause sexual problems, systemic problems such as nausea, vomiting, upset stomach, diarrhea, constipation, sweating, irritability, and more. This had led people to seek alternative therapy for depression including TMS.

We would recommend that you consider TMS as an alteranative therapy for depression. It is a non invasive, drug free, FDA approved treatment for the conditions of major depressive disorder and OCD. Each session is only 19 minutes and does not involve pain. There will be tapping sensations to your head during the treatment which at first is typically described as annoying such as a child tapping your head over and over again. After a couple minutes, this annoying sensation improves, and the treatment becomes more comfortable. The first treatment is typically described as taking a few minutes to get used to it, but subsequent treatments are more comfortable and easier to tolerate.

Some people elect to do TMS as their therapy for depression because once they are done with the treatment, they do not have to take a daily medication. Compliance is a struggle for a lot of people in which they have to take a medicine once or sometimes twice a day. Some patient feel that they are “dependent” on the medications or “weak.” This stigma is difficult to remove in a lot of patients who prefer to get non-invasive treatment and then they are done, and the entire process is medication free.

If you would like to get started with TMS treatment, please give us a call or email us to setup for a free consultation. Our contact information is here.

dTMS

dTMS stands for “deep” TMS. dTMS or “deep” TMS is an advertising term from the company of Brainsway who created the “deep TMS” machine. They call it “deep” or dTMS because their TMS machine produces stimulation of the brain 5-6cm into the brain tissue while other TMS machines (such as cloudTMS) stimulate at a depth of 2-3 cm. The inference in the advertising is the “deeper is better.” However, there is no evidence that a deeper TMS stimulation produces better results. CloudTMS also produces good results and is FDA approved for the treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD or depression) and OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder). There has been no large head-to-head studies studying which one produces better results.

The important thing is to stimulate the appropriate region that creates the therapeutic response. There is a lot more than just depth of the stimulation. There also has to do with the intensity of the stimulation, the frequency of the stimulation, the train duration, the inter-train interval, in number of trains per session, and the number of sessions. All of these variable can affect a treatment response. Therefore, depth could be relevant, but most likely is not.

Our machine (A CloudTMS machine) is capable of producing the stimulation needed to get a good treatment and response.

Many ask, why do they call it a CloudTMS machine? The manufactures call it this because there is a “silver-lining around every cloud.”

If you would like to know more about our treatment, please contact us, and we can setup a free consultation about this innovative treatment for major depressive disorder and OCD. Click here to contact us.

ECT Therapy

Searching for an alternative to ECT therapy? TMS is an excellent alternative to ECT therapy. It does not have the negative side effects of ECT. For example, TMS does not have cognitive and memory problems that is typically associated with ECT (Electroconvulsive therapy). Typically, ECT therapy is done on an inpatient basis (though they do have outpatient ECT clinics). ECT also requires an anesthesiologist to administer anesthesia prior to each treatment. TMS does not require any anesthesia and does not require an anesthesiologist. With ECT, the patient will typically have a “recovery period” after the procedure and will not be able to drive home by themselves. With TMS, you will have no recovery period and can drive after the procedure. Also, with TMS there is no seizure that is induced.

There are also rare and potential fatal side effects of ECT. There is a rare risk of death resulting from anesthesia, cardiovascular complications, or a stroke. There is a rare risk of a seizure with TMS therapy. Each method of treatment has it’s place in the treatment of depression and other psychiatric conditions, but there are differences that are highlighted. See our table below.

To summarize the differences between ECT therapy and TMS therapy:

If you would like to contact us about a free consultation about TMS treatment, please click here to contact us via phone or email. We look forward to talking with you.

What is TMS?

A common question asked is what is TMS or what is rTMS? TMS is an acronym that stands for Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation. This is a cutting-edge treatment for major depressive disorder, treatment resistant depression, and OCD. TMS has a long history and the use of magnetic pulse fields to stimulate neuronal tissue is mainly based on Faraday’s concepts of electromagnetic induction from research done in 1831. Research was then done on humans in 1896 by D’Arsonval.

Like most treatments the use of TMS came about by chance. In 1902, Adrian and Berthold Pollacsek Beer in 1902 used a magnetic stimulation to treat “Depression and neuroses.” In 1992, a researcher from Poland named Zyss published a paper questioning the need for a seizure to obtain therapeutic effects of ECT and raised the hypothesis that magnetic stimulation of the brain could be a new psychiatric therapeutic tool.

A lot has happened since then and TMS was approved by the FDA in 2008 for the treatment of patients with medication-refractory unipolar major depressive disorder (MDD) who had failed on adequate pharmacological trial.

Essentially, TMS is a treatment which stimulates cortical neurons via a magnetic pulse which causes small electrical currents in the prefrontal cortex which activates deeper brain regions. Repeated activation of the left prefrontal cortex through rTMA has been clinically proven to produce an antidepressant effect to help relief symptoms of depression.

We hope that this answers your question of what is TMS. If you would like to contact us for a free consultation, please click here.

TMS Denver

Are you looking for TMS Denver? At Front Range TMS, we offer services for TMS Denver. Many patients are looking for a non-invasive, effective, and drug-free way to treat their major depression or OCD. TMS (transcranial magnetic stimulation) is this type of service. Front Range TMS in Denver offers the non-invasive and drug free treatment for depression.

How does it work?

First, Dr. Tanner will meet with you and discuss your treatment goals and determine if TMS is the right treatment for you. Once the decision is made to go ahead with TMS treatment, then you will have your first appointment with Dr. Tanner. He will first “map out” your brain and determine your motor threshold (This means how strong the pulse will need to be to make your index or thumb twitch). Once he has your motor threshold, he will need to find your “depression center.” This area of the brain is known as the left DLPFC (left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex). Dr. Tanner will do this by making certain measurements and calculations to determine the appropriate area. He will mark this area as the treatment area.

After this, the 1st treatment will begin as the coil is placed at the pre-calculated area of the DLPFC. The FDA approved treatment for major depressive disorder is a 19 minute treatment. You will then come back for treatment M-F. Depending on your response, each course of treatment can include up to 20-36 treatments. Research shows that remission of depression can be a up to a year or longer. If you would like to call us to make a free consultation please click here.

TMS treatment is offered by Front Range TMS. TMS is an excellent treatment for a variety of conditions, namely major depressive disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). These two conditions are FDA approved for TMS treatment. Depending on your response, a course of treatment can be 20-36 sessions of TMS. Each session of TMS treatment is typically a 19 minute session.

The major advantage of TMS treatment is that it is a drug-free (non-medication) treatment for depression and OCD. Side effects are typically minimal and include headache and scalp irritation. There are no major side effects with the exception of a rare (.01%) chance of having a seizure with TMS treatment. This is a huge advantage to medications which can have general side effects such as fatigue, dizziness, nausea, sexual side effects and more.

Since this is FDA approved treatment for major depressive disorder and OCD, the major insurance carried will typically cover TMS treatment for these conditions with prior authorization. This means that you will have to have failed prior treatments and then get approval to get this paid for. Currently in Front Range TMS, we accept insurance from Blue Cross/Blue Shield, United Healthcare, Cigna, and Medicare. Each process for prior authorization is different for each carrier, so this can be discussed with Dr. Tanner during your initial consultation. Insurance prior authorization can take up to a week to a month to get prior authorization and approval. The insurance carrier may request more documentation from prior treatment.

If you’re ready to learn more about TMS and treatment possibilities for you, you can contact us here to setup a free consultation about our TMS services. If you have any questions, you can take a look at our FAQ or send us an e-mail at info@frontrangetms.com, and we will be happy to assist you.