rtms for bipolar disorder
rTMS for Anxiety Disorders
Bipolar Disorder (BD) is a mood disorder that affects about 2% of the population (1). People with bipolar disorder experience intense emotional states known as manic, hypomanic, and depressive episodes. Most patients with bipolar disorder will spend most of their time being ill in a depressive episode. Bipolar depression can be challenging to treat, and treatment resistance is common.
rTMS for bipolar disorder can be an effective treatment for bipolar depression. rTMS for bipolar disorder helps modulate abnormal brain activity in circuits responsible for mood, allowing the brain to shift to a more healthy state.
Currently, there is no single cause for bipolar disorder. Instead, it is likely an interplay between dysfunctional circuits in the brain, genetic predisposition, and environmental factors. People with bipolar disorder can have abnormal brain activity in circuits responsible for mood, emotion, and reward processing.
Treatment for bipolar disorder includes medications such as mood stabilizers and antipsychotics, and psychotherapy.
rTMS for bipolar disorder can be effective in bipolar depression. rTMS treatment for bipolar disorder modulates abnormal brain activity in circuits allowing the brain to shift to a more healthy state. rTMS for bipolar disorder can be added to your treatment for bipolar depression. A recent review of studies that used rTMS to treat bipolar depression found that patients were 2.72 times more likely to respond to rTMS when compared to a control treatment (fake rTMS).
Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is a non-invasive, highly effective treatment that uses electromagnetic impulses that pass easily through the skull to stimulate abnormal brain activity without any systematic side effects or downtime.
- Tee, M. M., & Au, C. H. (2020). A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized sham-controlled trials of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation for bipolar disorder. Psychiatric Quarterly, 91(4), 1225–1247. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11126-020-09822-6
- Nguyen, T. D., Hieronymus, F., Lorentzen, R., McGirr, A., & Østergaard, S. D. (2021). The efficacy of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) for bipolar depression: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Affective Disorders, 279, 250-255.
