http://www.webmd.com/stroke/news/20111213/magnet-therapy-may-help-some-stroke-survivors-recover
Magnet Therapy
May Help Stroke Survivors Recover
It has been observed that stroke survivors who have experiences
a decrease in the use of one hemisphere of their brain have experienced an
increase in nerve cell stimulation to the defective hemisphere through magnet
therapy. Magnet therapy (TMS) enables the stimulation of nerve cells by an
electrical current which is produced when the physician places a large magnetic
against the patients scalp. The article clams that this magnet therapy can be
effective after a stroke because it allows for the electrical activity within
the brain to become rebalanced between the two hemispheres. Researchers claim
that when a stroke occurs and half the hemisphere becomes defective then the
other hemisphere that is active becomes overactive in an attempt to compensate
for the loss. So by using this magnet therapy, it will allow the brain to
return to a more balanced state.
The study performed:
Ten out of 20 people who faced this problem following a stroke received the magnet therapy daily for two weeks. The other 10 received a fake treatment. All participants also did standard brain retraining. Everyone took tests that measured their abilities after the study and then again two weeks later. The tests measured line crossing and figure- and shape-copying ability. The tests also measured activities of daily living affected by neglect, such as dialing numbers on a phone, reading a menu, and sorting coins.
Overall, participants who received the magnet therapy improved by 16.3% immediately following treatment and by 22.6% two weeks later. There were no improvements seen in test scores of those who got the other treatment.
The overactive brain circuits also improved among people who got the TMS treatment, the study showed. Researcher Giacomo Koch, MD, PhD, of the Santa Lucia Foundation in Rome, Italy, and colleagues point out that the changes could be the combined effects of the mental tasks and the TMS.
Just based off of this article what do you guys think about
Magnetic therapy. What can you conclude
would be the pros and cons of this therapy and would you find it to be valid
and useful in aiding stroke victim recovery or is this method to extreme for
the average person?
Nicole, I found this concept to be intriguing since one of my roommates happens to be a physics major and could talk forever about magnetism! Based off the results that the authors concluded in this study, I believe that TMS could provide a valid treatment for stroke in the future. I liked how the authors titled their last section as CAUTIOUS optimism about magnet therapy because treatments for neurological problems most definitely require reassuring consistency in results.
ReplyDeleteThe most evident con that first comes to mind when considering Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation would be the cost involved in utilizing it as a treatment. Present day MRI's are already expensive, and I can only imagine that neurological magnetic stimulation would be more costly. Thinking more about the cost of TMS treatment made me wonder if there had been studies that evaluate the cost-effectiveness of TMS. I found the following journal article that explained the beneficial cost-effectiveness of TMS in patients suffering from depression.
The authors explained, "The cost-effectiveness of TMS was described
using an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio
(ICER) per quality-adjusted life year (QALY)
gained and on a direct cost per patient basis
across a varying range of assumptions." They then concluded that, "Compared with
sham treatment and at a cost of US$300 per
treatment session, TMS provides an ICER of
US$34,999 per QALY, which is less than the
“willingness-to-pay” standard of US$50,000
per QALY for a new treatment for major
depression."
I was wondering if you think that this is a viable option both financially and ethically for treating depression? And then considering the cost of TMS relevant to stroke patients, do you think it's realistic to utilize?
Here is the paper I looked at:
http://tmschattanooga.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Cost-Effectiveness-of-TMS-A-Health-Economics-Analysis.pdf
Thanks for this informational post Colin!
DeleteIn response to TMS treatment being a financially viable option for both depression and stroke I would conclude that the cost for TMS treatment is too high. I say this only because you have to have multiple treatments of TMS and at the cost of $34,999 per treatment, that leaves a hefty price to pay.
I pulled up the annual cost per person in the US for depression treatment and it was stated that annual treatments cost for depression are around $2500-3700. Much cheaper then $34,999 per treatment, but another important question remains of how many TMS treatments does one person need to treat depression? Maybe TMS treatments could be cheaper, more effective and less frequent than regular depression treatments in a person’s lifetime. Also, I was reading an article about TMS treatments and depression (Link found below) and the article concluded that the treatment had mixed reviews. They expressed that some people with the TMS treatment felt a significant improvement after two weeks while others experience no effect. Also I found this quite interesting, but in the article listed below, it actually suggested not using TMS to treat stroke patients because of the unknown health risk. This is interesting because the article that I posted about magnet therapy suggest otherwise.
I also wanted to look up the cost of stroke per person in the US annually and I found that the rates depend on your ethnicity, and the type of stroke you have. It was concluded that African Americans would pay $25,782 per person for treatment while Hispanics would pay $17,201 and Non-Hispanic whites would pay $15,597. So again, I feel it would come down to how many treatments of TMS you would need.
Overall, I find TMS to be costly, but if this treatment is concluded to be very effective after further testing then maybe the extra cost would be worth it. Furthermore I also found a quick article talking about some of the pros and cons to TMS treatment.
TMS Pros: Does not require anesthesia, non-invasive, well tolerated. An outpatient service and patient continues normal daily routines. Current data demonstrates efficacy in patients who have struggled with medication. May be good alternative for patients who responded to ECT in past. No significant memory impairment. FDA Approved in 2008 for the treatment of depression.
TMS Cons: Facial twitching during the treatment. Skin redness at site of coil placement. Anxiety before and during treatment. Mild discomfort (usually dissipates by end of first treatment). Headache. Expense - Private Pay or limited third-party coverage. Time – requires 30 treatment of an hour in length over 6 weeks.
Link: http://www.viewzone.com/transcranial.html
Hey Nicole.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the interesting article. I agree with Colin about the concerns for the cost of the treatment. According to strokecenter.org, about 795,000 people suffer a stroke each year. While many may have a stroke, also known as cerebrovascular accidents, most people probably can’t afford this treatment. You did a great job finding all the costs for treatments that people pay for. Both of you were so through; I don’t really think I can add to your post or Colin’s.
While reading this article about magnet therapy for stroke patients, I did think of something. Recently I saw on a TV show, that for individuals with pacemakers, exposure to magnets could be dangerous because it reprograms the pacer into asynchronous mode.
Before going into my thought process, I thought to include some general information about pacemakers. They prevent the heart from beating too slowly. Their purpose is to measure each heartbeat and to bring about an electrical stimulus into the heart, which causes a heartbeat. Having a pacemaker, an individual may bleed more, and it can lead to blood clots. Blood clots can cause a stroke. This could also poke a hole in your lung, heart, or blood vessel. The pacemaker itself may cause your heart to beat irregularly and as a result; it could fail to work properly. As you mentioned, when an individual has a stroke, it affects their brain activity. Considering all this information, I am wondering how this magnet therapy would affect someone with a pacemaker? I know the magnet is put against the patient’s scalp and not their chest, but I wonder if despite the distance of the magnet from the pacemaker, if it can still affect the pacemaker negatively? In addition, I wonder if the size and strength of the magnet can affect the pacemaker as well. This may be completely unrelated, but it was just thought I had. Let me know what you think.
Sources:
1. http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/162245-overview?pa=UnL4nTbSv4A8xk8%2FY%2F7Ilf03eMchWs%2BeM%2FawDI2d8mvXY5py6rypwBhsCHJCDkbSwFYXqiecZjL6by%2BQ5CZKTw%3D%3D#aw2aab6c10
2. http://www.stroke.org/site/PageServer?pagename=EFFECT
Zinna, I'm really glad you brought this up! In the case of treating stroke cases we normally only think about magnet therapy affecting the brain, but this is not always the case. I was actually reading an article about how patients with any type of metal in their body can undergo conduction and thus heat up the tissue around the metal damaging it! So in relation to a pacemaker, since I believe the majority is made of titanium, I would definitely assume that this would happen as well in the heart!
ReplyDeleteNice article , i need for this you clearly define the importance of magnetic therapy in Stroke Survivors Recover.
ReplyDelete