Last week, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cleared the NeuroStar transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) device, the first magnetic brain-stimulating device cleared for treating depression in adults who don't respond to antidepressant drug therapy.

The NeuroStar TMS Therapy device stimulates nerve cells in an area of the brain that has been linked to depression by delivering targeted magnetic pulses to these cells. TMS is an outpatient procedure that is prescribed by a psychiatrist and performed in a psychiatrist's office. It does not required sedation or anesthesia, and the treatment is typically administered every day for 4 to 6 weeks. In clinical studies, the patients who experienced the most benefit from TMS were those who had failed to respond to one antidepressant medication, but had not yet tried a second antidepressant.

TMS may be an alternative for electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), or electroshock therapy, another type of treatment for depressed patients who fail medication therapy. In comparison to ECT, TMS is safer because it does not require sedation and it can be administered on an outpatient basis. However, while ECT is extremely effective in treating severe depression, TMS is not as powerful and is used to treat milder cases.