As a practicing psychiatrist for more than 40 years, Dr. Paul Gross, Director of TMS Center of the Lehigh Valley, had always sought ways to help patients considered “treatment resistant”—those who weren’t helped by psychotherapy, medication or a combination of both. When he heard about transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) therapy, a brain stimulation technique that noninvasively stimulates neurons in the brain to induce immediate or long term changes in activity, he became intrigued.

“I had been following TMS while it was being proposed and researched,” he says. “There was a lot of interest in it, and a lot of journal articles about it, before it was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2008.” The treatment had already been used in Europe. 

In 2010, while attending a conference in Atlanta, Dr. Gross saw a NeuroStar TMS machine. He was also able to speak with French and Cuban psychiatrists that had used other TMS machines in their practices and had seen good results.

Once the NeuroStar TMS machine received FDA approval—the first model to do so—Dr. Gross knew that was a golden opportunity to help his patients. In January 2011, he opened TMS Center of the Lehigh Valley, the region’s first depression treatment center offering FDA approved, non-drug, non-invasive TMS treatment for patients. TMS Center of the Lehigh Valley has since become one of the most experienced centers on the East Coast, having treated over 1,000 patients.

While receiving TMS therapy, the patient reclines in a chair while a strong magnet coil, similar to that used in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), is placed on the patient’s scalp in the left prefrontal cortex, or the “control center” of the brain for depression. The magnet repeatedly stimulates the neurons in that area, turning them “on.” 

“It turns on that part of the brain; when the neurons are turned off for various reasons—we’re not sure why—but we’re bringing those neurons back to normal function,” Dr. Gross explains.

Patients are awake during treatment. The duration of treatment sessions is based upon the average repetitions of the magnet, or 3,000 pulses. Dr. Gross estimates it takes about 30 sessions over a six-week period to reach the number of treatments necessary to see results. The treatment is mostly free from side effects. Some people report headaches during treatment, or feel slightly tired afterward.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation therapy is commonly used for depression and anxiety, two conditions that Dr. Gross says often go hand-in-hand. “Often, people who are depressed are also anxious, so when their depression gets better, their anxiety level gets better as well,” he says.

Other conditions that Dr. Gross uses TMS for include obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), bipolar disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The magnetic coil is placed in different areas, depending on the condition.

Dr. Gross had also treated a neurological patient that had suffered from a stroke. The patient had depression and couldn’t move his right arm or hand. Dr. Gross and his team used TMS to treat the patient’s depression. Through brain stimulation, the patient was able to move the right hand and arm again.

        Dr. Gross notes he always looks at the medications patients are taking, and sometimes he’s been able to reduce their medications during or after TMS treatment.

“We’re in the infancy of this treatment, and we’re finding out more every year about where to place the magnet, how strong it should be and how many sessions,” he notes. “There’s ongoing research, and the field is really wide-open because there are a lot of disorders that are not being treated well with current treatment practices, and TMS is an option. Down the road, I would suspect that you’ll see TMS used more and more for other conditions.”

During the decade that Dr. Gross has used TMS therapy on patients, he’s seen about a 65 percent significant improvement rate among patients that have depression, many of whom were considered treatment resistant. “These are people who, for years, had shown no improvement. So, it’s really remarkable to see somebody who has been suffering for years and they start to get better,” he concludes.

TMS Center of the Lehigh Valley is located at 401 N. 17th St., Ste. 304, in Allentown. For more information, call 610-820-0700 or visit tmslv.com.