TMS THERAPY
FDA-cleared, non-medication depression treatment
Tolu Ajiboye
Medically reviewed on 11/4/2020 by
Dr. Steven Harvey
St. Louis Regional Medical Director
If you're experiencing depression, it's natural to want to seek out new ways to improve your symptoms and feel better. You may have heard that gut health and depression are linked, and you may come across some sources claiming that taking probiotics or amping up your leafy greens intake can help relieve depression symptoms. If you decide to take these steps, you should know that they probably won't make a considerable impact on your depression symptoms.
While there's certainly no downside to eating healthier and trying to maintain good gut health, these are not depression treatments. It is true, however, that the gut microbiome (the combination of microorganisms in your gut) is often connected to mood and mental health. Knowing how this connection manifests according to established science can help you make the right depression treatment choices.
Digestive problems like nausea, diarrhea, and constipation are common symptoms of depression. These symptoms typically don't have a clear cause and can't be attributed to another illness. In one study, 54 percent of people with depressive symptoms experienced frequent stomach pain, diarrhea, constipation, indigestion, or IBS. In contrast, only 29 percent of people without depression experienced those digestive issues frequently. That doesn't mean that alleviating digestive symptoms will treat depression altogether.
As with many other conditions, mitigating the non-primary symptoms of depression may have little or no effect on the primary symptoms; the condition itself must be directly targeted and treated. In other cases, you may find that digestive issues aren't directly caused by depression. Instead, they may be caused by changes in dietary habits due to depression. For instance, many people who experience depression find themselves cooking less and eating out more or reaching for high-carb, sugary comfort foods, which can disturb the gut microbiome and cause digestive issues. For this reason, seeking a depression treatment that works for you can be an important step in addressing dietary and digestive issues that may be indirectly caused by depression.
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In recent times, there has been a flood of articles linking gut health to mood. There is some truth to many of these pieces, but the reality isn't entirely straightforward. Many digestive health conditions are comorbid with depression, which means they can occur at the same time as depression. For instance, depression rates are higher among people with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) like Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.
IBS and depression co-occur 30 percent of the time, and 25.8 percent of people with IBD experience depression. IBS and IBD are chronic gastrointestinal conditions that cannot be treated with supplements or minor dietary changes alone. Their interactions with depression are also complex, and more research is needed to understand the specific reasons behind their high comorbidity with depression.
The gut microbiome and depression are sometimes linked. Your gut health can affect the depression symptoms you experience. Conversely, depression can also affect the health and constitution of your gut. However, taking care of gut health is simply not enough to eradicate depression symptoms. Ultimately, depression is a medical condition that requires targeted treatment. This typically means a combination of antidepressants and talk therapy. If these treatments have not worked for you, there are other FDA-approved therapies available.
One of these options is Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) therapy. TMS therapy works by using gentle magnetic pulses to stimulate brain regions tied to mood and emotion. TMS provides depression symptom relief for about two-thirds of people (62 percent) who try it after antidepressants have proven ineffective. If you're looking for an effective depression treatment, the solution won't come from half-proven gut health fads. Fortunately, there are treatment options available that may provide you with relief from your depression symptoms, so remain hopeful and persistent as you search for the right treatment for you.
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