Lecture – Uncovering Mechanisms To Improve TMS Effectiveness

Available with English captions.

Presented by Joshua C. Brown, MD, PhD, McLean Hospital – McLean Forum lecture

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a safe and effective tool for treatment-resistant depression and obsessive compulsive disorder and has the potential to treat any brain disorder involving cortical networks.

This therapeutic tool is used to durably modulate brain networks involved in psychiatric disorders. Clinical effectiveness of TMS can be optimized through understanding and leveraging its mechanism of action.

Evidence suggests that long-term potentiation (LTP) may mediate the lasting effects of TMS, and boosting LTP appears to improve neurophysiologic and clinical effects of TMS.

Watch now to learn more about:

  • The mechanism of action for transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)
  • The fundamental role of parameter selection on the clinical effects of TMS
  • How mechanism-guided pharmacologic augmentation and parameter selection are transforming how TMS is delivered and how we can tap into the therapeutic potential of TMS

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About Dr. Brown

Joshua C. Brown, MD, PhD, is medical director of the Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) Service and director of TMS research in the Division of Depression and Anxiety Disorders at McLean Hospital. Dr. Brown is also director of the Brain Stimulation Mechanisms Laboratory at McLean and an associate professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Brown works to advance TMS through service on the Clinical TMS Society’s board of directors, as a member-at-large and research committee co-chair. He directs research focused on determining the synaptic-level mechanisms of rTMS, which in turn, can help guide TMS parameter selection and augmentation strategies to maximize TMS benefits for brain disorders. His research uses neurophysiology, including neurophysiology, neuroimaging, and neurobehavioral tasks, to measure TMS effects in combination with relevant receptor-modulation drugs in human subjects.

Watch this video to learn more about TMS and how it works