Camberwell’s Epworth hospital explores new mental health treatments
People with depression, dementia and obsessive-compulsive disorder could be successfully treated by having their brains stimulated with magnetic fields under a radical treatment being considered at the Epworth in Camberwell.
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Electricity is being used to treat depression and other mental health conditions in what could be a life changer for those who find medication ineffective.
Professor Paul Fitzgerald, director of the new Epworth Centre for Innovation in Mental Health, said two-thirds of people with depression found their symptoms weren’t alleviated by medications and research into new treatments was “desperately” needed.
One in four people in the world will be affected by a mental or neurological disorder during their life, according to the World Health Organisation.
Depression and anxiety are among the most commonly occurring mental health maladies according to the Black Dog Institute.
Prof Fitzgerald said Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), which involves altering the brain’s magnetic field using soft electric pulses, had been a focus of his research over the past two decades and would continue to lead the agenda at his new clinic.
TMS was proven to help with depression and he stressed it was different from the controversial electroconvulsive therapy, which uses electricity to induce seizures and is still legal in most Australian states.
In comparison he said the electric pulses used in TMS were much more gentle, and he said he was interested to explore if it could help with other mental illnesses including Alzheimers and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
“They literally sit in a chair and there is a coil gently touching their scalp … it may feel like a little woodpecker sitting and tapping away at their head,” he said.
The centre would also work at developing a take-home electronic device that patients could use to complement their in-clinic TMS treatment, he said, and he said he hoped one day the therapy would be more commonly available to those who needed it.
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“It is an area where we desperately need more research,” he said.
“Certainly with the home-use treatments we’re hoping to expand that to be a treatment for everyone who has depression who doesn’t want to take medication.”
Prof Fitzgerald encouraged anyone who would like to participate in his clinical trials to contact him. Email: mentalhealthresearch@epworth.org.au