The Specialist:
The director of the adult psychopharmacology program at Mount Sinai,
Dr. Dan Iosifescu is a psychiatrist who specializes in
difficult-to-treat mood and anxiety disorders. He is a 15-year veteran
of the field.
Who’s at risk:
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Dr. Dan Iosifescu, the director of the adultpsychopharmacology program at Mount Sinai,describes non-invasive ways of treating depression. |
Using magnets to induce activity in parts of the brain might sound like space-age medicine. But doctors are already using this futuristic technology to combat some types of depression.
“Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) is a non-invasive way of
stimulating specific areas of the brain and, in the process of doing
that, helping to correct or improve certain brain functions,” reports
Iosifescu. “It’s been six years since the FDA approved the first
generation of TMS devices for treating severe major depressive disorder
and now a newer form, Deep Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, has been
approved to help people with major depressive disorder who have failed
multiple medications — patients with what we call treatment-refractory
or treatment-resistant depression.”
True to its name, Deep Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation is able to activate deep regions of the brain.
“Deep TMS utilizes a special magnetic coil to create a magnetic field
that goes much deeper into the brain than previous technologies could,”
Iosifescu says. “Going deep into the brain allows us to stimulate areas
involved in the management of emotions.”
