Magnetism Can Help People with Depression

Well, maybe a psychiatrist’s ‘animal magnetism’ can do this, but now there’s evidence that transcranial (through the skull) magnetic stimulation can achieve a similar effect.  This is reported in the Archives of General Psychiatry.

The study was done in 4 US university hospital clinics, using 200 antidepressant-free patients with major depression.  The subjects were randomly assigned to an active or a sham-control group.  The active group received stimulating the left prefrontal cortex with an electromagnetic coil for 37.5 minutes daily for 3 weeks.  The control group received similarly timed sham treatments that mimicked the stimulus sensation using the same coil and scalp electrodes, but with the magnetic field blocked.

The active treatment resulted in remission of depression in 14% of patients, whereas sham treatment was effective in only 5% of participants.  Analyses showed that patients having the active treatment were 4.2-times as likely to achieve remission as those given sham treatment. 

Previous studies of this form of therapy have been ongoing for a decade, with mixed results.  The authors of the present study feel that they have done a well-controlled study, as the sham procedure was blinded better – the use of a metal shield to block the magnetic field allowed the same tapping and twitching sensations to be felt by both active- and sham-treated subjects.  As there were no side effects of note, the researchers suggest doing another study using a slightly stronger current, in order to try and get a better responder rate.  We’ll be interested in the outcome.