[News] VNS & Depression Investigation

Welcome to the Coping With Epilepsy Forums

Welcome to the Coping With Epilepsy forums - a peer support community for folks dealing (directly or indirectly) with seizure disorders. You can visit the forum page to see the list of forum nodes (categories/rooms) for topics.

Please have a look around and if you like what you see, please consider registering an account and joining the discussions. When you register an account and log in, you may enjoy additional benefits including no ads, access to members only (ie. private) forum nodes and more. Registering an account is free - you have nothing to lose!

As I understand it, VNS is actually an implant, kinda like a pacemaker -- so it actually IS invasive. Whereas, TMS involves holding a wire coil close to the head to produce the magnetic stimulation -- there's no physical contact involved, so in that sense it is truly non-invasive .
 
Thankyou, Nakamova, for agreeing vns IS invasive. Cyberonics claims it isn't. When my sister had hers, it was implanted into her body. ANYTHING implanted into your body IS invasive PERIOD. An FDA spokesperson discussed TMS in a WebMD article entitled: FDA OKs TMS Depression Device, and according to that article TMS uses a magnetic field to induce a much smaller electrical current than the ECT device, in a specific part of the brain without causing a loss of consciousness. It is not as powerful as ECT and is used to treat milder depression. It also does not require sedation and is administered on an out-patient basis. Then in a Wikipedia article: Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, it says that TMS uses electromagnetic stimulation to generate an electrical current across the scalp and skull without physical contact. A plastic enclosed coil of wire is held next to the skull, and when activated produces a magnetic field which penetrates only to a maximum depth of 3 centimeters into the brain, in the area directly adjacent to the coil.
 
Back
Top Bottom