Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) treatment

Treatment will take place over 4-8 weeks, which requires patients to come to Endeavor Health Center – Naperville Behavioral Health or Endeavor Health Evanston Hospital – Behavioral Health every weekday.

The first session will be with a psychiatrist who will meet with you and establish a treatment plan. Your first deep TMS treatment will take approximately 1 hour, and further sessions will be 30 minutes. After 4-8 weeks, sessions will taper off with a maximum of 36 treatments depending on each individual patient's condition and response to deep TMS. Patients will schedule an allotted time, which will remain consistent throughout the process.

• To begin, you will be seated in the deep TMS chair and a helmet will be placed onto your head
• The machine will deliver short, 2-second pulses with approximately 20 second periods between them, targeting the brain with magnetic waves
• After treatment is done, you may resume regular activities
• There is no safety issue resuming driving after each treatment
• Some patients experience mild fatigue or headaches. Pain can be managed with over-the-counter (OTC) pain reliever medication

Response to treatment varies for each patient — changes are anticipated within 2-4 weeks, but not all patients will experience a change in mood. While improvement may begin as early as 2 weeks, a full course of treatment is recommended to improve the odds for long-lasting improvement following a course of TMS. If treatment is found to be ineffective, your care team will work with you to consider next steps.

TMS is a noninvasive treatment and, in most cases, has minimal and temporary side effects. The most common side effect is a local, passing headache at the treatment site, which usually subsides after the first few treatment sessions. Over-the-counter medication can be used to alleviate this.

Less frequent side effects include muscle twitching, jaw pain or scalp sensations, but these typically diminish after adjustments to the helmet's position. Unlike medications, TMS does not lead to severe side effects such as nausea or memory loss.