ATLANTA (CNN) -- "An experimental treatment for severe depression, in which powerful magnets are applied to patients' heads, is showing signs of success, a medical journal reports."

    Depression affects over 37 million people per year.  It is an illness that is often times managed quite nicely through a wide array of medical, psychiatric, and alternative therapies. Despite the impressive arsenal, it is estimated that 10% of those people who suffer from depression are refractory to conventional forms of treatment.  The many people who remain refractory to treatment are left with few alternatives to this life altering illness.

    Alternatives to conventional medical management of depression include psychotherapy (including interpersonal and group therapies), electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), and light therapy.  In recent years use of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has been studied and is showing promise to those who suffer from severe refractory depression.

    During TMS procedure, which lasts only about 5 minutes, the patient sits comfortably in a chair while a strong magnetic field (100-1000 Gauss) is applied transcranially in short bursts of one second duration.  The magnet is placed over the left froto-temporal lobe.  The procedure is very safe and provides little risk for side effects, especially when compared to ECT. Some patients describe the procedure as a small tapping sensation on the skull.

    In June of 2000, Pridmore et. al. published in the International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology a study comparing the outcomes of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to that of electroconvulsive therapy.  The study size was small but the rate of remission between the two treatment modalities were equal.  While ECT was found to diminish the severity of the depression through the course of the treatment at a higher rate than rTMS, the numbers were not found to be statistically significant.

    In July 2002 an article published in the American  Journal of Psychiatry by Hoffman et al. found exciting evidence that suggested that slow repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation reduces cortical activity, thereby reducing symptoms  of patients enrolled in preliminary trials such as dystonia, seizures and auditory hallucinations.

    While magnets continue to be a multi-billion dollar business in the management of chronic pain while showing little scientific evidence they perform better than placebo, preliminary evidence for their ability to assist with treatment resistant depression is encouraging and continues to be studied.