Is TMS Therapy like electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)?
The two procedures are very different. “Shock therapy,” or electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), intentionally causes a seizure. TMS Therapy does not. Patients receiving ECT must be sedated with general anesthesia and paralyzed with muscle relaxants. In contrast, during the TMS Therapy procedure, the patient sits in a chair and is awake and alert throughout the entire 37-minute procedure. No sedation is used with TMS Therapy. Recovery from an ECT treatment session occurs slowly, and patients are usually closely monitored for minutes or a few hours after a treatment. Short-term confusion and memory loss are common, and long-term disruptions in memory have been shown to occur and may persist indefinitely in some people. In studies completed to date, TMS Therapy was shown to have no negative effects on memory function.
