HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY — Dr. Melissa Fickey is a child and adult psychiatrist and founder of Embracing Life Wellness Center in Hillsborough County. She worked with a group to help get Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, or TMS, cleared by the FDA for teens ages 15 and older.
“I presented some of my own patient information… Speaking to the responses and remission rates that I’ve seen from my patients that were under the age of 21, but particularly under 18,” said Fickey.
“This was previously FDA cleared for 21 and up," she added.
She told ABC Action News that getting it cleared for some teens is a huge step forward in offering a non-medicated option to treat mental health disorders like depression and helps get it approved by insurance companies to make it more accessible to people who otherwise couldn’t afford it.
“We’ve never had anything like this. We’ve never had an outpatient device. There’s always been— people hear about ECT, Electric Convulsive Therapy, which is really, you know, people are real scared of that and think that this is ECT, which it’s not at all. ECT is in the hospital, it’s much more evasive,” said Fickey.
TMS is a noninvasive treatment that delivers magnetic pulses to the area of the brain involved in emotional regulation.
“By delivering magnetic pulses what it’s doing is forming action potential across your neurons that then get your neurons firing again. It’s thought to be underactive in patients with depression,” said Fickey.
“It’s getting your neurons to start wiring together again appropriately. There’s this phrase, ‘what fires together wires together.’ So you’re getting them firing again, getting those connections going again. That’s why sometimes people say ‘oh wow I’m starting to hear music, music sounds different to me. Now colors are brighter,’” she added.
Fickey said the magnetic pulses are safe and similar to the strength of an MRI machine, and they can play a big role in waking the brain up.
“We’ve looked at PET scans that show that patients that have a depression brain, it lights up differently and shows that there’s not much activity going on in comparison to a non-depressed brain,” said Fickey.
Dr. Jennifer Katzenstein is the co-director of the Center for Behavioral Health at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital.
She agrees that this treatment can benefit some patients.
“This is a an exciting emerging treatment for some patients and having the right protocol and having the right equipment that’s available is incredibly important,” said Katzenstein.
Experts believe TMS offers another treatment for families looking for more options.
“It’s one more option that is incredibly helpful in some kids to be able to treat depression without having to rely solely on medication. Therapy and having a strong counseling relationship is a key part of any of these treatments as well,” said Katzenstein.
Moving forward, groups hope to get TMS cleared for younger patients and more mental health disorders.
