Posted by Pfinstegg on November 29, 2005, at 22:11:07
In reply to Re: Tianeptine » Pfinstegg, posted by SLS on November 29, 2005, at 19:40:32
Hi Scott..thank you for bringing me up to date on your current medications. It helps me know much more about your situation. I know VNS has been approved, but I am, personally, more skeptical about it than I am about TMS. Mark George has treated a small group of people with severe bipolar- one TMS treatment per week for a year- which resulted in really good remissions while the treatment was going on. I'm sorry that I don't have the reference handy but I think it's easy to find on Medline. I have a more atypical type of unipolar depression, but am very fortunate that it is responsive to TMS as given by Dr. Hutto in Atlanta. He gives it at a percentage of the motor threshold: I started at 65%, and now get 75% when I go for "boosters"- always to the left frontal area. In addition, the other things i have been doing have resulted in an overall lessening in the severity of the depression.
If you explore the TMS literature, which I expect you already have, you will find that it does lower 24-hour cortisol levels, and often reverses DST non-suppression (it does that for me, but only for a short time). If it works (50% chance), it only does so for a short period of time (with Dr, Hutto's patients, they come back for retreatment as often as every three weeks, or, at the other end of the range, every six months). The research on it is very encouraging- citing a lot of neuroprotective benefits, and there does not seem to be any harm- unless you have a seizure disorder, or metal in your skull. When (if?) it's approved, i plan to make it a regular part of my health care here at home. After a lot of exploration, Dr. Hutto and I think that 4-6 treatments every two months would probably be the best protocol.
If you decide to give it a try, please let me know. I would love to know if it works for you! For my initial series of treatments, I had 10 treatments before I felt much benefit, and then had another 5 as "insurance". Now, people are usually given two treatments per day, so that you can receive 20 in two weeks if you want/need them; often 10 are enough.
poster:Pfinstegg
thread:582455
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20051126/msgs/583521.html