PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Study supports the long-term benefits of transcranial magnetic stimulation for depression

2010-10-13
(Press-News.org) (CHICAGO)–In a study to determine the durability and long-term effects of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), psychiatric researchers at Rush University Medical Center have found the non-invasive, non-drug therapy to be an effective, long-term treatment for major depression. Results of the study were published in the October 2010 issue of Brain Stimulation, a journal published by Elsevier.

TMS therapy is a non-invasive technique that delivers highly focused magnetic field pulses to a specific portion of the brain, the left prefrontal cortex, in order to stimulate the areas of the brain linked to depression. These pulses are of a similar intensity to the magnetic field produced during an MRI imaging scan. The repeated short bursts of magnetic energy introduced through the scalp excite neurons locally and in connected areas in the brain.

TMS received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in October 2008. This novel treatment option is a safe and effective, acute antidepressant therapy, but there is limited information on its long-term benefits.

"This is the only prospective, maintenance, follow-up study which assesses the durability of acute TMS benefit in patients with major depression," said Dr. Philip G. Janicak, study principal investigator and professor of psychiatry at Rush University Medical Center.

In the study, 301 patients suffering from major depression were randomly assigned to receive active or sham TMS in an acute, six-week, controlled trial. Patients who responded then underwent a three-week, transition period where they were tapered off of active or sham TMS treatment and started on a standard antidepressant for maintenance. After any successful acute treatment for depression such as TMS, antidepressant medications or electroconvulsive (ECT) therapy, it is usual practice to introduce maintenance medication to lessen the chance of relapsing.

In the acute, randomized trial, 142 patients who received active TMS therapy responded and entered the three-week, transition phase. One hundred twenty-one patients completed this phase without relapse. Of those patients, 99 (81.8 percent) then agreed to be followed for an additional 24-week period during which only 10 patients relapsed.

In addition, TMS was successfully used as an intermittent rescue strategy to preclude impending relapse in 32 of 38 (84 percent) patients. This indicated that the therapeutic effects of TMS are durable in the majority of acute responders and that reintroduction of TMS as an adjunct to medication was effective and safe in preventing relapse.

"The results of the follow-up study further support TMS as a viable treatment option for patients with major depression who have not responded to conventional antidepressant medications," said Janicak. "After acute response to TMS, a standardized regimen of antidepressant medication maintained the acute benefit in the majority of patients over a six-month period."

The FDA-approved TMS device was developed by Neuronetics, Inc. Patients treated with TMS therapy do not require anesthesia or sedation and remain awake and alert. It is a 40-minute outpatient procedure that is prescribed by a psychiatrist and performed in an outpatient setting. The treatment is typically administered daily for four-to-six-weeks.

Depression affects at least 14 million American adults each year. Researchers estimate that by the year 2020, depression will be the second leading cause of disability worldwide. About two-thirds of those who experience an episode of depression will have at least one other episode in their lives. Depression is a debilitating illness, and existing treatment options are frequently ineffective or intolerable due to side effects. Current antidepressant therapies are not beneficial for at least a third of depressed individuals, leaving many with a lack of adequate treatment options. INFORMATION:


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Adding cetuximab to chemotherapy doubles response rate in hard-to-treat breast cancer

2010-10-13
European researchers have proven for the first time that targeting the epidermal growth factor receptor can provide substantial clinical benefit for women with hard-to-treat triple-negative breast cancer. At the 35th Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) in Milan, Italy, the researchers presented results from a Phase-II randomized trial showing that adding the anti-EGFR antibody cetuximab to cisplatin chemotherapy doubled the response rate and time to progression when compared to cisplatin chemotherapy given alone in a study of 173 heavily pre-treated ...

Early research reveals new clues to origin of diabetes

2010-10-13
ANN ARBOR, Mich. – University of Michigan scientists have identified events inside insulin-producing pancreatic cells that set the stage for a neonatal form of non-autoimmune type 1 diabetes, and may play a role in type 2 diabetes as well. The results point to a potential target for drugs to protect normally functioning proteins essential for producing insulin. A study published online today in the journal PLoS One shows that certain insulin gene mutations involved in neonatal diabetes cause a portion of the proinsulin proteins in the pancreas' beta cells to misfold. ...

Global research effort leads to new findings on genes and obesity

2010-10-13
October 10, 2010─(BRONX, NY) ─Two major international studies looking at data from a quarter of a million people around the globe have found a new set of genes associated with body fat distribution and obesity. Researchers at 280 institutions worldwide, including Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, conducted the studies. The research, published in the October 10 online edition of Nature Genetics, sheds light on the biological processes involved in body fat distribution, possibly leading to new ways of treating obesity. "These studies ...

NFL players with concussions now sidelined longer

2010-10-13
Los Angeles, CA (October 11, 2010) NFL players with concussions now stay away from the game significantly longer than they did in the late 1990s and early 2000s, according to research in Sports Health (owned by American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine and published by SAGE). The mean days lost with concussion increased from 1.92 days during 1996-2001 to 4.73 days during 2002-2007. In an effort to discover whether concussion injury occurrence and treatment had changed, researchers compared those two consecutive six-year periods to determine the circumstances of ...

Abiraterone acetate improves survival in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer

2010-10-13
Patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer who have progressed after chemotherapy live significantly longer if treated with the drug abiraterone acetate compared to placebo, the results of a large Phase-III clinical trial confirm. "This is a major step forward in prostate cancer therapeutics," said Dr Johann de Bono from The Institute of Cancer Research and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust in London, who presented the study results at the 35th Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) in Milan, Italy. "Patients in this Phase-III ...

Fertility concerns of cancer survivors inadequately addressed, study finds

2010-10-13
Many cancer survivors experience changes in sexual function that leave them feeling guilty and a longing for intimacy, Australian researchers told at the 35th Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) in Milan, Italy. The researchers say that these sexuality and fertility concerns are often not adequately addressed by doctors. Professor Bogda Koczwara from Flinders Medical Centre in Adelaide said that fertility concerns among cancer survivors was a growing problem, due to a combination of improved cancer treatment outcomes in young cancer survivors ...

Re-evaluating the time of your life

2010-10-13
In life, we're told, we must take the good with the bad, and how we view these life events determines our well-being and ability to adjust. But according to Prof. Dov Shmotkin of Tel Aviv University's Department of Psychology, you need more than the right attitude to successfully negotiate the vicissitudes of life. As recently reported in Aging and Mental Health, Prof. Shmotkin's research reveals that people's well-being and their adaptation can be ascertained by their "time trajectory" ― their concept of how they have evolved through their remembered past, currently ...

Sexual issues a major concern for cancer patients taking new targeted drugs

2010-10-13
New drugs that target specific molecular mechanisms of cancer have improved the treatment of cancer patients in recent years, but those benefits may come with a cost to the patient's sex life, researchers have found. At the 35th Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) in Milan, Italy, French researchers reported on one of the few studies to investigate the impact of cancer therapy on the sexual functioning of patients. Dr Yohann Loriot and Dr Thomas Bessede from Institut Gustave Roussy in Villejuif, France and colleagues found that patients taking ...

Afatinib benefits lung cancer patients whose cancer progressed after treatment with EGFR inhibitors

2010-10-13
Lung cancer patients who have already been treated with the EGFR inhibitors erlotinib or gefitinib seem to gain further benefits in terms of progression-free survival and tumor shrinkage when treated with the new drug afatinib, the results of a Phase IIb/III trial show. At the 35th Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) in Milan, Italy, Dr Vincent Miller from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, USA, reported findings from the LUX-Lung 1 trial of afatinib in 585 patients with lung adenocarcinoma whose cancer had progressed after chemotherapy ...

New Phase II study shows first-line promise of lung cancer drug PF-299

2010-10-13
A new-generation lung cancer drug has shown an impressive ability to prevent disease progression when administered as a first-line treatment in patients with advanced disease, investigators reported at the 35th Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO). Preliminary results from an ongoing Phase-II trial of the drug PF299804 (PF-299) showed that close to 85% of patients whose cancers harbor mutated forms of the EGFR gene have remained progression-free for at least nine months, reported Dr Tony Mok from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. While some ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Unmasking the voices of experience in healthcare studies

Pandemic raised food, housing insecurity in Oregon despite surge in spending

OU College of Medicine professor earns prestigious pancreatology award

Sub-Saharan Africa leads global HIV decline: Progress made but UNAIDS 2030 goals hang in balance, new IHME study finds

Popular diabetes and obesity drugs also protect kidneys, study shows

Stevens INI receives funding to expand research on the neural underpinnings of bipolar disorder

Protecting nature can safeguard cities from floods

NCSA receives honors in 2024 HPCwire Readers’ and Editors’ Choice Awards

Warning: Don’t miss Thanksgiving dinner, it’s more meaningful than you think

Expanding HPV vaccination to all adults aged 27-45 years unlikely to be cost-effective or efficient for HPV-related cancer prevention

Trauma care and mental health interventions training help family physicians prepare for times of war

Adapted nominal group technique effectively builds consensus on health care priorities for older adults

Single-visit first-trimester care with point-of-care ultrasound cuts emergency visits by 81% for non-miscarrying patients

Study reveals impact of trauma on health care professionals in Israel following 2023 terror attack

Primary care settings face barriers to screening for early detection of cognitive impairment

November/December Annals of Family Medicine Tip Sheet

Antibiotics initiated for suspected community-acquired pneumonia even when chest radiography results are negative

COVID-19 stay-at-home order increased reporting of food, housing, and other health-related social needs in Oregon

UW-led research links wildfire smoke exposure with increased dementia risk

Most U.S. adults surveyed trust store-bought turkey is free of contaminants, despite research finding fecal bacteria in ground turkey

New therapy from UI Health offers FDA-approved treatment option for brittle type 1 diabetes

Alzheimer's: A new strategy to prevent neurodegeneration

A clue to what lies beneath the bland surfaces of Uranus and Neptune

Researchers uncover what makes large numbers of “squishy” grains start flowing

Scientists uncover new mechanism in bacterial DNA enzyme opening pathways for antibiotic development

New study reveals the explosive secret of the squirting cucumber

Vanderbilt authors find evidence that the hunger hormone leptin can direct neural development in a leptin receptor–independent manner

To design better water filters, MIT engineers look to manta rays

Self-assembling proteins can be used for higher performance, more sustainable skincare products

Cannabis, maybe, for attention problems

[Press-News.org] Study supports the long-term benefits of transcranial magnetic stimulation for depression