Mental health: Teens test magnetic therapy for treatment-resistant depression
Rania Spooner, Bell Marra Health | October 9, 2016
Copyright© 2016 FairFax
Something changed and getting out of bed was no longer the “hardest thing in the world” for this teenager.
The depression had hung heavy over Courtney, sapping her of motivation for years despite the medications and therapy.
Courtney has participated in a world first trial testing if magnetic fields cast onto the brains of depressed children.
Then last year – aged 17 – she joined a world-first trial that is beaming magnetic fields onto the brains of depressed children.
Most days for a month she would sit in a chair for about 20 minutes while an electromagnetic coil was rested against the side of her head.
Courtney trialled the rTMS treatment for a month, with each daily session lasting about 20 minutes.
It made a loud tapping sound, like a woodpecker.
A few weeks after she finished the treatment Courtney noticed it wasn’t so hard getting out of bed in the morning. Not just get up but go out and do things, things she would find she could enjoy.