As mentioned above, EMT therapy is highly effective and has been shown to be safe. However, this does not mean that patients cannot experience any side effects of this treatment. The most common side effects affecting patients include mild headaches or tingling of the scalp or jaw. Repetitive TMS is a non-invasive form of brain stimulation used for depression.
Unlike vagus nerve stimulation or deep brain stimulation, MRTS does not require surgery or implantation of electrodes. And unlike electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), RTMS doesn't cause seizures or require sedation with anesthesia. The most serious risk of RTMS is seizures. However, the risk of seizures is extremely low.
At Johns Hopkins, we follow up-to-date safety guidelines that are designed to minimize the risk of seizures. While RTMS is a safe procedure, it is important to note that because it is a new treatment, there may be unforeseeable risks that are not currently recognized. The most serious side effects and risks of EMT therapy are seizures. However, the overall risk of having a seizure is very low.
However, if you have a history of seizures, TMS may not be the best treatment for you and it is necessary to consult with your doctor or team. People with any type of non-removable metal implant in the head are also contraindicated for EMT. There are exceptions to dental appliances or dental fillings on the teeth. Side effects associated with TMS are usually mild.
They usually decrease after the end of the session and then cease with ongoing treatment. RTMS has not been associated with many of the side effects caused by antidepressant medications, such as gastrointestinal upset, dry mouth, sexual dysfunction, weight gain, or sedation. The effectiveness of EMTR may improve as researchers learn more about the techniques, the number of stimulations needed, and the best sites in the brain to stimulate. This field can be of sufficient magnitude and density to depolarize neurons, and when EMT pulses are applied repetitively they can modulate cortical excitability, decreasing or increasing it, depending on the stimulation parameters, even beyond the duration of the stimulation train.
Typically, psychotherapy would be administered remotely from exposure to RTM; however, the potential impact of concurrent administration on response and side effects is relatively unexplored. In healthy participants, RTM studies have yielded negative results for TMS-induced EEG abnormalities (45 volunteers in 5 publications). TMS should be one of your first treatment options, as low risk and lack of side effects are very attractive. The term “fast” or “high frequency” RTM should be used to refer to stimulus rates greater than 1 Hz, and the term “slow” or “low frequency” RTM should be used to refer to stimulus rates of 1 Hz or less.
For example, there is a lot of interest in evaluating whether RTM with antidepressant drugs is more effective than RTM alone. The other conditions you described are areas of research with TMS, but they are not FDA-approved conditions. The potential of TMS to prepare the response to neurorehabilitation in cerebrovascular disease is being examined. In addition to the 4 key parameters that define RTM trains (intensity, frequency, train duration and inter-train interval), repeated application of RTM introduces additional metering parameters describing cumulative exposure to RTM.
The possible risks related to lasting cognitive changes are related to the cumulative effects of repeated sessions of RTM, within the framework of therapeutic applications for neurological and, mainly, psychiatric diseases. There are many studies that show very good promise with TMS for anxiety disorders and bipolar disorder. However, the safety of EMT in pediatrics requires special consideration, as developmentally regulated changes in the CNS may affect susceptibility to TMS-related adverse events. .
