FDA approves treatment based on MUSC research

By Jamie Durant
Morning News Health/Environmental Reporter
Published: November 22, 2008

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently approved a new treatment for depression based on the work of a doctor at the Medical University of South Carolina.

The NeuroStar TMS (Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation) Therapy system, developed by Neuronetics Inc. and initiated by research at MUSC, is the first and only approved TMS Therapy device cleared by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of severe depression.

Dr. Mark George, MUSC Distinguished University Professor of Psychiatry and director of the Brain Stimulation Laboratory, said he began his career many years ago by looking at the parts of the brain involved in depression.

“We don’t fully know what depression is, but we do know it is a disease of the brain — a disease of specific parts of the brain,” he said.

One of the regions of the brain his research focused on, the prefrontal cortex area, doesn’t do anything like moving a thumb or wiggling the toes, but it allows people to think, dream and hope.

“When that part of the brain is diseased, it stops people from doing those things, which can lead to depression.

“We have talking therapy that treats depression and medication, but we really don’t understand how either of those treatment methods work,” he said.

Before the FDA approval of TMS, the only other option available to people suffering from depression was electro-convulsive therapy (ECT), commonly referred to as electric shock treatment. What is often seen in movies is not what ECT has evolved into in the past few decades, however.

According to Depression.com, a Web site funded and operated by pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, ECT is typically only used in severe cases of depression where medications and therapy have been unsuccessful. It works by sending an electrical charge into the brain causing a controlled seizure.

The Web site said the effects of the treatment are often instantaneous, allowing the patient to return to a normal life. But because of the most common side effect of the treatment being short-term memory loss, some patients to eschew ECT in favor of other, less effective methods.

But George said TMS reduces the side effects associated with ECT, making it once again an option for people suffering with depression.

“Despite the gloom and doom that seems to surround us, the world is slightly better today than yesterday, as patients with depression have another option to try and relieve their pain and suffering,” he said in a statement.