The Treatment
What happens during an rTMS treatment?
The patient sits in a comfortable reclining chair throughout the entire rTMS treatment session. Prior to starting a treatment, patients must remove any magnetic sensitive objects, and put in their earplugs.
During the first rTMS treatment session, several measurements are made by the psychiatrist to ensure that the rTMS coil will be properly positioned on the patient’s head. Once this is done, the psychiatrist determines the patient’s resting motor threshold. The resting motor threshold is an estimate of an individual’s level of motor cortical excitability required to induce a thumb twitch. The site and level of the motor threshold is used to customize the treatment site and parameters for the patient.
In most cases, the treatment site is the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. (LDLPFC). Treatment is commenced and a treatment session usually lasts about 45 – 50 minutes. However, with some types of rTMS, the treatment session can be completed in about 20 minutes.