FORT SMITH, Ark. — Since January of this year, Mercy Fort Smith has been offering patients an alternative method to ease their depression. It's called Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS). Dr. Venkata Dalai is a psychiatrist at Mercy Fort Smith, and while TMS is new to that location, he says it’s been available in other places since 2008.
“The improvement is pretty significant, and it's doin really, really good. It's a big blessing for the community, and the patients will help in solving this problem,” explained Dalai
With that said, Dr. Dalai says it is not for everyone.
“A lot of insurance companies separate TMS procedures only for those patients who try at least one SSRI, one SNRI, and at least one treatment augmentation method by a combination of medications ... with psychotherapy,” Dalai said.
But the treatment works for Kristen Mack, who has battled with treatment-resistant depression, generalized anxiety disorder, PTSD, and complicated grief for the majority of her life.
“I felt like I had been walking around with a weighted blanket on me for years,” Mack says.
Mack has been on antidepressants since she was 14, and for over 15 years she has tried multiple different medications but nothing was working.
“I had gene site testing, where they actually check your DNA and how you break down medications in your body, what works well for you and what won't based on you individually. We found that I rapidly break down medications. But I wasn't benefiting from them because my body was burning through them faster than when they could actually help,” Mack recalled.
This May, she turned to a new treatment option.
Dr. Dalai is Mack’s psychiatrist, and Mack came to Mercy for 6 weeks from Monday through Friday to undergo treatment. Some may consider that time-consuming, but Mack says the investment was worth it.
“I had nothing to lose because I was feeling so terrible that I didn't see any way that it can make it worse,” said Mack.
So how does the treatment work? Dr. Dalai explains that “TMS is a completely non-invasive procedure. It's done in the clinic setting, and we put a magnetic coil on the surface of the scalp. That magnetic coil generates rapidly changing magnetic fields. These magnetic fields produce electrical currents in the specific targeted location of the brain that stimulate a particular part of the brain.”
Mack graduated from treatment last week and says her days are looking brighter once again.
“I just felt so relieved, you know? Kind of like, my whole body felt lighter, in a sense. And I noticed that I wasn't feeling as negative about things and that I could actually enjoy things again,” Mack said.
If anyone thinks they might be a candidate, they can begin by talking to their therapist, or primary care doctor to determine whether it's an appropriate treatment option.
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