Got TMS?

Today's read is from MIT's magazine Technology Review, February 2009 issue, page 26, located towards the bottom of the page near a teal colored rectangle with the word Psychiatry inside.

The article is entitled Magnetic Depression Treatment, and in case your eyes might play tricks on you, that's not Manic Depression Treatment.

A quick look at the photo might confuse you. The setup looks pretty much like a dentist's office, except if you will look more closely, there is a "Treatment Coil - converts electrical currents into MRI-strength magnetic fields". This unit plugs into a standard wall outlet.

According to the magazine article, the treatment is delivered with a specially made wand held over the head which " delivers highly focused magnetic pulses to a part of the brain that's been linked to depression".

Another article gives a good review.

To you skeptics out there, think of all the magnetic words you know: magnetic storm, magnetic imaging, horseshoe magnet, horseshoe crab (oops), and Wooly Willy. Wooly Willy is a primer of the fact that magnetism can move things.

Wooly Willy was a toy, the guy on the thin plastic tablet in a plastic case filled with metal shavings. The user held a magnetic tipped plastic wand and rearranged the metal shavings to add or subtract hair and beard to Willy's head and face. You remember don't you?

Willy was OK until you started messing him up.