Salon.com > antidepressants

I’m avoiding work

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 01:00:00 +0000

Dear Readers,

Some have written lately asking where the column is. It's still there. The best way to read the column every day is to bookmark http://www.salon.com/topic/since_you_asked/ and click on that every day. This bookmark will always display the latest column and list all the others. You could even put this link in your calendar, like iCal, with a reminder every day, and then you could just click on the column every day that way. Or you could just call me up on the phone and we could chat every day and I could read the column to you over the phone. Nah. That's not practical. I could, however, make a daily podcast of me reading the column out loud, which I should have done 10 years ago and still haven't gotten around to it.

Anyway, I will run this notice up here for a few days so that folks will see it.

You could also subscribe to the Salon email newsletter and see how that works for you. It works for some people.

A magnetic helmet that could help treat depression

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 14:08:00 +0000

The United States Food and Drug Administration approved a helmet that treats depression using -- wait for it -- magnets. It might sound like weird science, but doctors are hailing it as a non-invasive and effective alternative to antidepressants.

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (or TMS), involves wearing a helmet filled with electromagnetic coils that sends magnetic pulses to "rewire" specific neural pathways in the brain. Brainsway, a publicly traded Israeli company, has an exclusive license for the technology.

While TMS bears some resemblance to electroconvulsive therapy, doctors say it works quite differently. Traditional shock therapy induces seizures to release neurotransmitters, the goal for TMS is to energize nerve tracks in the brain by making them fire more frequently. The magnetic field impulses of TMS are far gentler, the same strength as those used in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines.