Medical Magnetism

Sixteen years ago, Steve Zatuchni was a computer sales manager, making a six-figure income. Then all hell broke loose in his brain.

He became severely depressed, to the point that he could no longer work. He slept up to 18 hours a day, and when he was awake, felt so miserable he wished he were asleep. He tried dozens of medicines, in myriad combinations. Nothing worked. Distraught, he tried to kill himself several times.

Then, in 2004, he enrolled in a study of an experimental therapy called transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS -- a noninvasive treatment that sends magnetic pulses into the brain.

It worked. "Within a week, the depression was lifting," he says. "Within two months, it was gone. TMS saved my life." Zatuchni, 59, who lives in the Philadelphia area, no longer takes any medicine.

Stories like Zatuchni's are no surprise to a growing group of researchers, therapists and entrepreneurs. Proponents -- including scientists at Harvard, Yale and UCLA -- say TMS could transform treatment for depression as well as a range of other ailments, including schizophrenia, migraines, insomnia, epilepsy, chronic pain and Parkinson's.

"It's extremely promising," says Dr. Abraham Zangen, a TMS expert who does research at the Weizmann Institute in Tel Aviv, Israel. "TMS could revolutionize psychiatry. It's a completely new approach."

Meanwhile, over the past two decades, hundreds of small studies have found TMS both safe and effective. Among them:

• Yale researchers reported that TMS can eliminate auditory hallucinations suffered by many schizophrenia patients.

• Harvard scientists have shown that the treatment can reduce what was thought to be intractable chronic pain.

• A team at Columbia University used TMS to improve memory in people suffering from sleep deprivation.

Although TMS is already used in several countries, including Germany and Canada, it is not yet approved in the United States. But that could change later this year if the Food and Drug Administration decides to allow it as a treatment for migraines.

Early last year, in response to an application from a TMS device maker, an FDA panel decided the treatment was safe, but didn't work better than a placebo. The company, Neuronetics Inc. of Malvern, Pa., plans to reapply later this year.

Maryland inventor Robert Fischell has put his efforts into a hand-held TMS unit (most are currently the size of a desktop computer). The device is undergoing a clinical trial for migraine treatment.

"With a little luck, it'll be on the market by the end of the year," says Fischell, who also started a company, called Neuralieve, to produce it.

Fischell, a former Johns Hopkins physics professor who lives in Howard County, has invented dozens of medical devices over the past 40 years -- including the rechargeable pacemaker, implantable insulin pump and a variety of stents to help unclog coronary arteries.

He says that in most cases his new invention can relieve a migraine with just two magnetic pulses delivered over a few seconds. "It says, 'Neurons, whatever you're doing, stop it,'" Fischell says.

In November, a nationwide trial sponsored by Neuronetics found that TMS improved depression in a significant number of subjects. (Zatuchni was part of this research.)

In the study, chronically depressed subjects received TMS for 35 minutes a day, five days a week, for four to six weeks. Depression improved significantly in a quarter of the volunteers -- double the rate of a control group that had a sham TMS treatment (subjects were hooked up to the TMS device but didn't receive magnetic waves).

Dr. John O'Reardon, an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania and lead researcher in the study, says the 1-in-4 success rate is actually quite good, given that the subjects suffered from "treatment-resistant depression," i.e. they had tried many medicines and therapies without success.

"These are the toughest patients to treat," he said. "This was a significant improvement." He notes that once the control group was also given TMS, the success rate shot up to almost half of all subjects.

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