Review
...an impressive and well achieved effort ... bring[ing] conceptual and methodological order to a new and very promising field in psychiatry... -- Thomas E. Schlaepfer, M.D., Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Mental Hygiene, The Johns Hopkins Hospital and School of Public Health, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Psychiatric Neuroimaging Group,University Hospital Bern, Switzerland
Product Description
Yet it wasn’t until quite recently—1985 in fact—that the modern age of TMS began. Since then, TMS has played a pivotal role in exploring and mapping previously uncharted regions within the human brain.
This comprehensive, extensively annotated volume begins by tracing the history of TMS and then addresses—chapter by chapter—the current applications of TMS in specific disorders including movement disorders, epilepsy, major depression, bipolar disorder/mania, anxiety disorders, developmental stuttering and Tourette’s syndrome, and schizophrenia. Readers will find
- An overview of TMS physics, using a simple circular current loop model to illustrate the application of the relevant principles.
- The basic physiology of what can be measured and what can be affected by TMS, particularly instrumental in the measurement of cortical excitability or connectivity, and therapeutic intervention (e.g., Tourette’s syndrome, schizophrenia, and some forms of epilepsy).
- A dual focus on the effects of TMS on the motor cortex, i.e., both the methods used to address the integrity of connection and the techniques used to measure the excitability of the motor cortex.
- A comparison of the effects of TMS and ECT in animal models of depression, showing that their similarities may further support the potential role of TMS as an antidepressant treatment while bringing us closer to the neuropsychiatric mechanism of TMS action.
- A review of recent research that shows how the use of TMS as a primary brain mapping (motor output maps, neuroplasticity, and perception) tool—already a valuable tool for the cognitive neuroscientist—will only increase in the coming years.
- Discussions about safety concerns, TMS, and neuroimaging, and how TMS can be used with related therapeutic modalities.
Even with advances in neuroimaging, much of the adult human brain remains a mystery. With its clear text and wealth of illustrations, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation in Neuropsychiatry helps shed light on the astonishing intricacies of brain function and organization, and as such is a must-read for anyone interested in how the brain works—clinical researchers of brain function, neuroscientists, neurologists, general psychiatrists, neuropsychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers.
