MONTICELLO - Dr. Peter Panzarino has offered psychiatric services in Monticello since 2005. He works one-on-one with clients to treat them for depression and he also specializes in opioid treatment. Now his office can offer a new treatment: Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS).

TMS is a non-invasive procedure in which a changing magnetic field is used to cause electric current to flow in a small, targeted region of the brain via electromagnetic induction. Panzarino said it stimulates your own nerve cells to secrete chemicals instead of having to take pills to produce those chemicals. After the treatment, there is no need to go back on medication.

Panzarino said the results have been positive. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved TMS for people who have treatment resistant depression, meaning they have been on medication for depression and it hasn't worked.

TMS was developed in 2009. Dr. Panzarino has used the NeuroStar Advanced Therapy system at his office for five months and treated 30-40 people. He said 80 percent of them get significantly better. “People are so grateful,” Panzarino said.

Patients will have 36 sessions, one every day. The first session is one hour and after that they are 18 minutes. Dr. Panzarino said there are no side effects, but there might be some pain around the site or headache, which will go away. The procedure is covered by most insurances.

“Our results have been spectacular,” Panzarino said. He said they treated a woman who had severe depression and had been hospitalized six times by the time she was 30 years old. After TMS, she said she could live without depression for the rest of her life. “There's potential to get so many people off medication,” Panzarino said.

During a TMS procedure, a magnetic field generator, or coil, is placed on the scalp. The coil is connected to a pulse generator, or stimulator, that delivers a changing electric current to the coil. Panzarino notes that it is nothing like electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). “It's the difference between lightning and a lightning bug,” he said.

Synergy of Monticello, Inc. is located at 64 Jefferson Street, Suite 1, Monticello. Call 845-791-8800.