updated: May 4, 2009
1. What kind of side effects can TMS provoke?
2. What is the payment method?
3. What type of device is used?
1. what KIND of side effects can tms provoKE?
In comparison with other treatments for depression, rTMS has been shown to have very few adverse or undesirable effects. Generally speaking, the side effects of rTMS are relatively mild.
The most common potential side effects of rTMS are the following:
- Headaches in 10 to 20% of the cases. These headaches usually go away with the help of analgesic medications like acetaminophen or paracetamol.
- Light-headedness and mild somnolence after
sessions.
- Noise (your physician will provide you with earplugs).
- Very rarely, manic or mixed symptoms (agitation, irritability).
- Seizures or convulsions (1 in 1000 patients). There has
not been any occurrence of seizures reported since 1998.
In
the aim of reducing the above-mentioned side effects and in
order to avoid complications, the physician who will administer rTMS
will
scrupulously follow all safety recommendations adopted by the International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology (IFCN, http://www.ifcn.info) and by
the International Society for
Transcranial Stimulation (ISTS, http://www.ists.unibe.ch).
2. what is the payment method?
Since rTMS is a new therapeutic approach in the medical field, access to such type of care is important for us. For this reason, we aim at providing quality care at an affordable
cost to our patients. rTMS is not yet covered under health-care insurances in
3. what type of device iS used?
In our practice setting, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is administered with a device that meets CE standards with the necessary characteristics of use for therapeutic purposes.