Pilar Cristancho, MD

There have been considerable advances in the research on and clinical use of neurostimulation for psychiatric disorders, especially mood disorders and MDD. Three of the most recognized are reviewed here. An experimental new treatment-- trigeminal nerve stimulation-- is also briefly discussed.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is noninvasive focused brain stimulation that uses pulsed magnetic fields. The underlying mechanism depends on the principle of electromagnetic induction, the process (discovered by Faraday in 1839) by which electrical energy is converted into a magnetic field and vice versa.1