February 16, 2011
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
Today I watched an interesting video put out by BBC Horizon entitled, "The Secret World of Pain." One of the subjects, a stroke victim struggling with chronic pain, was able to find relief through Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (I sobbed along with her, as she experienced pain relief for the first time in years). Watch the video to find out more.
Is TMS an option for you? It's available at UCSD for depression, but unfortunately not for chronic pain.
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18 comments:
There was a study out at the same time I got my occipital stimulator for the use of this for migraines. If you are interested you might check out studies to see if anyone is recruiting subjects. My understanding is that is completely non-invasive. Great video!!!
Incredible video....very interesting!
Thank you Winny, I'll definitely look into studies.
Glad you enjoyed the video as much as I did Jessica.
One day...available for all those who suffer from chronic pain.
I believe so too, Diane.
I asked my neuro doc about this treatment. He has used it in his practice but does not like it. He says it leaves patients feeling disoriented. Since that seems to be my perpetual migraine state, I decided to opt out of this one...lol However, I would be very interested in hearing if other Migrainistas have had success with this. xoxo from VT
Was your Neuro referring to the non-invasive form? I read about disorientation as a side effect for ECT and deep brain TMS, but didn't see it for non-invasive yet. I trust that it's possible, I'm just secretly hoping it's not ;)
Did your doc's patients not see enough of a result to warrant the side effects? Was the disorientation permanent?
Thanx Jasmine! I teared up too.. I'm still a ways off from any kind of treatment but, like Gyan, wouldn't be willing to risk yet more disorientation. Really loved the underlying theories tho' & do recognize hope therein. ~_~
(|_|*ch33rs*|_|)
"Strictly speaking, there is but one real evil: I mean acute pain." – Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
Jasmine,
Thank you for posting this fascinating video!
I have read about TMS before but I had never seen a show like this that put a picture to it.
I cried with her too. Watching the how re-wiring of her arm responded to TMS made me wonder if it could help my biggest chronic pain problem (post-surgical complications resulting in very severe pain in my leg following nerve resection surgery).
Multiple neurologists have told me that my leg will never be the same again but watching her response gave me hope that someday maybe significant improvement could happen.
The only thing that has given me any improvement in my leg so far is acupuncture and he has (wait for it) worked on acupuncture points to "re-wire" things.
The physical therapist who is treating me for cervicogenic migraines indicated that the innervation for the femoral nerve just happens to end where my (relatively new) calf pain has been occurring.
She said that it is possible that there has been some nerve regeneration that is related to the calf pain.
So, when the show got to the woman featured in part 4, I was crying for her and crying at the realization that there is still hope for my leg... which has been severely impacted since my January 2008 surgery.
The entire show was fascinating! I watched all four parts... not just the last one.
It is so heartening to know that there is so much promising research being done to investigate and better understand so many facets of pain.
What a fascinating show! Thank you for sharing it!
Jeanne
I believe there is hope for your leg pain, Jeanne :D
I embedded the 4th part because the BBC removed the full video I originally took from youtube. For whatever reason we're not supposed to be able to view it in the U.S. Probably because we'll learn that there are other alternatives to shoving drugs into our already ill bodies.
After viewing this woman's reaction to being pain-free for the first time in five years, something tells me disorientation won't keep her from continuing with treatment. But I honestly can't speak for this treatment or the possible side effects until I give it a try. When that will be here in the U.S. is the question.
Jasmine,
I absolutely hear you that there are surely special interests (cough cough... Big Pharma) who don't want us seeing this stuff.
As I said to my "very excited about the show" husband after we watched it, "bear in mind that just because they did a study like this that is available in England for such pain doesn't mean it will be available (even by research studies) in the U.S. for similar things.
(This is about when phrases like "hopping a plane" came out of my dear husband's mouth). As if we could afford gas to drive to the airport. ;)
I also said, "bear in mind they have a different health system than we do and that there may be special interests in the U.S. that would try to prevent people from getting such treatment here".
So, I totally understand why you think that special interests might be behind the full-length video being taken down.
That said, I'm wondering if maybe it was split because of the size of the file. I thought YouTube had a 15 minute limit (formerly 10).
When I first saw the video posted on your site, I didn't watch it because I didn't have time to watch the whole thing that day.
Is it possible that YouTube forced BBC to split it down to 15 minute parts? I've seen other programs like that that were in 15 minute segments on YouTube. Could it be that BBC wasn't supposed to have uploaded it whole to start?
If special interests were trying to keep us from seeing it, wouldn't it be taken down entirely? Or do you think they thought that would be too obvious and they decided to just make it more difficult?
I obviously can't speak for this treatment or side effects either.
It sure would be interesting to know if this might become available on a wider basis in the U.S. than just the (apparently narrow) window of research studies that use it here.
Jeanne
Dorian, glad you got a chance to see the video. And thank you for commenting :D
Jeanne, in the BBC Horizon's FAQ, I found: "We use technology to prevent people from outside the UK from accessing content that we need to limit to the UK for rights reasons."
So...parts of a video are okay, but not the whole thing. Whatever the reason, I'm glad I was able to find a backup because I definitely wanted readers to view it.
Aww, your hubby's so sweet to mention "hopping a plane" for this treatment!
How cool is that?! Just that advances are being made is encouraging.
So true, Betsy!
Wow! Fascinating video. Thanks so much for posting this.
Indeed, Sue. Glad you watched it. Let's hope it becomes a treatment option for Americans soon.
Great video. Very encouraging for those of us who live with some pain. Thanks.
Glad you got a chance to view it, Barbara. It's very encouraging.
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