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TMS(transcranial magnetic stimulation)

ruben

Senior Member
Messages
286
I'd been meaning to post on here about TMS for some months and now I see on the home page an article about it. In Doctor Clauw's view it would seem there is some hope that this treatment could could be very effective for helping people with fibromyalgia. I think it is generally considered that fibromyalgia and CFS/ME all come under the same umbrella. People on here like me who live in the UK might have seen earlier last year a documentary on the BBC about chronic pain and more specifically about the role of the mind in chronic pain. A woman on the programme who was only in her early 30s had suffered a stroke and was left with chronic pain down one arm. She had the the TMS tried on her. This simply involved a gadget being placed near a certain part of her scalp for some minutes and the 'treatment' applied. Within a few minutes the woman started to cry, her pain had gone. Now I was quite impressed with all this and I emailed the professor on the programme asking him if TMS had been tried on Fibromyalgia or ME/CFS. He said it hadn't as yet but that he would put me on their database. I for one would certainly like to give it a go. As a male in my mid 50s who has had ME/CFS my entire adult life I have looked for help from many sources. I have also spent quite a bit of money as well in my search for a cure. In 2008 I think it was I actually went to see a Lightning Process practitioner. It didn't get me right. It seemed you needed so much willpower to do it often enough. But there were things about it which I thought did make sense. Now my main point here is this. Are TMS and things like The Lightning Process/Gupta training actually addressing the same thing in the brain? Is this a possibility. I look forward to your views.
 

voner

Senior Member
Messages
592
Rueben:

I am like you. male, in my 50s, me/fms with immense amounts of pain (allodynia, hyperalgesia, etc), and I saw the BBC program. Pretty stunning program. it me on a search for information -- which frustratingly, did not produce...

I can post more next week -- I'm not presently somewhere where I can use a computer much but in the current theory of chronic pain -- there's people in Australia and Britain who (along with DRs LIGHT at the University of Utah) seem to be on the cutting edge. Look up the NOI group (Dr. David Butler) in Australia, and Lorimer Moseley & the BIM (body in mind) group. They have a book called Explain Pain which is oriented towards laypersons.

I am not familiar with the Lightning Process. TMS is a very hot topic in many neuroscience research fields right now which makes it subject to some claims that are not verifiable quite yet. You might do a search for research projects that are testing TMS and chronic pain and see if you could get entered into the program.. I did this but I could not find anything here in United States that would work for me.

I read CORTs published on Dr. Clauw. I found it quite intriguing. One thought I kept on having is

If the autonomic system is messed up, and the sensing system is messed up what is messing them up? I have not seen anybody speculate on this, except for a description of the usual it is triggered by something"

anybody with an experience with TMS????????????
 

kaffiend

Senior Member
Messages
167
Location
California
I was involved in some TMS research with stroke patients a few years ago. Some colleagues of mine use it regularly as part of their research. It is not comparable to lightening process or a magical unknown mechanism. TMS uses an oscillating magnetic pulse to induce (Faraday's Law) a small electrical current perpendicular to the magnetic field. With this, it can create temporary "virtual lesions" on the surface of the brain.

I don't know anything about its applications in Fibromyalgia or CFS. The effects are very localized (about 1cm) and can only affect regions of the brain near the surface.

PBS has some links and videos that might be of interest.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/george-uses-tms.html

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/mind-control-TMS.html
 

anciendaze

Senior Member
Messages
1,841
We need a new number for catch 22. I attempted to get into a research study using TMS a few years ago. After qualifying by every other criterion, I was rejected for that study because I had "unexplained losses of consciousness". A neurologist had assured me that I did not have epilepsy, and I now believe the apparent seizure reported by emergency medical personnel was caused by orthostatic intolerance leading to hypoperfusion. It seems there is enough evidence to suspect microscopic brain damage, but not enough to call this a neurological disease.

Welcome to the circular queue of CFS.
 

ruben

Senior Member
Messages
286
I take it Levi you're suggesting that no one has had any experience of TMS on here