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**Spread** · **Spread** More Washboard User ID: 115445 08-19-2012 12:52 PM **Posts: 11,723**

Brenda Rykhoek says a new contraption in her psychiatrist’s office does more than cause a tingling near her forehead. She says it has helped lift the deep depression that has fogged her life for years.

“I was very, very suicidal,” she said. “I had no hope. I was in a very dark place. I would have done anything to get out of there.”

Rykhoek, 51, of Pella, travels regularly to West Des Moines to sit in a chair and have a technician place a special magnet over an area of her left forehead. The device, which makes a series of tick-tick-tick sounds, sends out magnetic pulses. Proponents believe the pulses encourage cell activity in brain regions that affect mood.

The process, called transcranial magnetic stimulation, was approved by federal regulators in 2008 for treatment of depression. The treatment has skeptics, and few insurers cover it. But supporters point to studies that suggest it can help people whose depression can’t be relieved with medication.

How does the process work? Rykhoek’s psychiatrist, Charles Wadle, said the short answer is, “We’re really not sure.”

Wadle said researchers know certain parts of the brain are less active in people who are depressed. The theory behind the new treatment is that magnetism can encourage brain cells in those areas to fire more often, he said.

Wadle said the new process has similarities to electroconvulsive therapy, a longstanding practice that involves running a controlled electrical current through the brain. Patients must be put under anesthesia for that therapy, because it causes seizures. Wadle performed electroconvulsive therapy for many years, and he still considers it “the gold standard” for patients with severe depression. But he noted that the new magnet treatment doesn’t require anesthesia, and it is more tightly targeted.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article...es-magnets