FDA Clears TMS Therapy for the Treatment of Depression

Finally, 3 years after the first presentation of the trial data at the 2005 ACT meeting and one year after the publication of the results in Biological Psychiatry by Jonny O'Reardon the manufacturer Neuronetics got the treatment approved by the FDA for

  

for the treatment of Major Depressive Disorder in adult patients who have failed to achieve satisfactory improvement from one prior antidepressant medication at or above the minimal effective dose and duration in the current episode.

If you want to read the PDF of the full press release click here (beware, language geared to potential investors...).

In order to convince the manufacturer had to do an additional trial. If you want some more information on the development history read the excellent summary from the blog Brain Stimulant.

Cyberonics Hasn't Found Depression-Business Partner

Normally I do not read business pages - but this is interesting for our scientific field. CNNMoney.com writes on the business outlook of Cyberonics for the depression indication. Overall the future does not seem too bright right now:

The need for a trial, plus the need to convince insurers, suggests it could take years before the depression business has a chance to speed up, said analyst Brozak, who has a sell rating on Cyberonics. In today's financial markets, that is a long and uncertain investment horizon for potential partners, he said.