Brain stimulation is revolutionizing mental health care, is well tolerated and shows potential in treating a wide range of mental illnesses.
CAMH’s Temerty Centre for Therapeutic Brain Intervention is one of the world’s leading centres in brain stimulation treatment, research and training. Through clinical research projects, the Temerty Centre is driving treatment advances using repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS); magnetic seizure therapy (MST); and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT).
Brain stimulation is creating tremendous hope for people with hard-to-treat depression. rTMS is already approved for adults with depression in many parts of the world—the Temerty Centre has contributed to the evidence leading to its use around the world. The Temerty Centre is now focused on the next generation of studies in depression that seek to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of delivering this treatment. rTMS has also demonstrated promise as a treatment for some of the symptoms of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. It is being explored as a potential intervention for the cognitive functioning impaired in autism spectrum disorder.
The Temerty Centre also hopes to identify biological markers of brain stimulation treatment response to ultimately improve —and even personalize—treatments.
