Clinical Use of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation for Suicide Prevention

Available with English captions and subtitles in Spanish.

Presented by Nolan Williams, MD, Stanford University School of Medicine

In this lecture, Williams outlines the work he and his colleagues are doing to accelerate the response of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) for patients with treatment-resistant depression.

Watch now to learn about:

  • Neuromodulation treatments for depression
  • Recent findings in theta burst TMS
  • New methods of rapid-acting brain stimulation

In this talk, Williams provides background on how all neuropsychiatric diseases are disorders of distributed neural networks. Depression can be reflected in brain connectivity.

Williams describes how his research is focused on developing depression treatments that match the acuity of depression symptoms. He and his colleagues explore the capabilities of TMS, a noninvasive procedure that uses magnetic fields to stimulate nerve cells in the brain to help patients who do not benefit from medication.

Williams and his colleagues apply TMS within the setting of an inpatient hospitalization for suicidal patients. The advancements have the potential to help patients recover rapidly at this critical phase of treatment prior to their release from the hospital.