Dementia Treatment with TMS in Beverly Hills, CA
From Beverly Hills, California to Boston, Massachusetts many Americans suffer a variety of cognitive disorders. The European Union knows that dementia treatment can result in success with Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS).
TMS is an exciting, revolutionary, non-invasive treatment for many types of illness associated with brain functioning. One type of illness that TMS is being looked at is for treating dementia.
There is a great hope with TMS treatment to help cognitive improvement and depression in dementia.
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Illinois, held the most recent clinical trials on TMS and cognitive ability. The study included sixteen healthy participants between 21 and 40 years of age. The target area for stimulation was the hippocampus. Other parts of the brain that had been tested before this study yielded no improvement in cognitive ability. Before treatment each trial participant took a memory test, the trial lasted five days. During the week and, at least, one day after treatment had ended each had their cognitive ability retested and had repeat brain scans.
How TMS Helps Dementia with the Cognitive Parts of the Disease
Each participant showed cognitive improvement of 20 percent to 50 percent. US research is promising, and hopefully, TMS will soon be available for treatment of cognitive disorders.
Hope is Here to End and Treat Dementia
According to the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America, “Dementia is a general term that describes a group of symptoms such as loss of memory, judgment, language, complex motor skills, and other intellectual functions caused by the permanent damage or death of the brain’s nerve cells, or neurons.”
Dementia News tells us that, “TMS is a non-invasive therapy used to stimulate or inhibit specific regions of the brain through the use of fist-sized coiled magnets placed on the scalp. According to those who have received TMS it feels like a light constant tapping on the head. While the exact mechanisms through which TMS affects brain function are still being explored, it is suggested that regular TMS can stimulate neurons (and nerve cells) in the brain through the induction of electric currents.”
Although there are many causes of dementia, Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is the leading one. There are presently only five treatments, all medications, used for treating AD in the United States, but the European Community has already approved TMS for the treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease and dementia. TMS is currently being validated in the United States.
What is Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Treatment?
Although the exact ways TMS helps patients with dementia and cognitive disorders are not yet fully understood. Researchers believe that TMS boosts cognitive function by cortical modulation. In addition, the research strongly suggests that TMS increases specific neural networks used for a given cognitive process. Patients are fitted with headgear that has magnetic coils attached to it. Sessions last about 20 minutes and require no hospitalization or anesthesia. When treatment is completed, the patient is ready to walk out of the procedure room and go home.
Following use of the magnetically-induced pulses, underactive neurons, and underactive neural networks are excited and become active. Brain chemistry including neurotransmitters such as dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine and others are believed to have significant changes in levels after treatment. Some researchers have thought aloud that these variations in brain chemistry lead to enhanced cognitive function.
Sources:
http://www.alzfdn.org/AboutDementia/definition.html
http://www.fda.gov/MedicalDevices/DeviceRegulationandGuidance/GuidanceDocuments/ucm265269.htm
