When our offices discuss rTMS therapy, we are referring to a similar practice called repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation therapy. Technically speaking, all TMS therapy treatment is considered repetitive; that’s because one session isn’t sufficient to treat any patient, which is why we prescribe multiple scheduled sessions for treatment.

However, the separation in the two terms comes down to academia: Researchers seeking to run trials to learn more about TMS therapy will have patients who actually undergo the process, but they will usually only receive one or two pulses per trial. Even if they were to receive two or three pulses each time, it’s not really considered to be repetitive. After all, just compare this to our standard treatment process, which includes multiple pulses on various key points across the scalp — something truly repetitive, especially as it must be done over and over again over multiple sessions over time.

In other words, TMS refers to the academia, whereas all TMS treatment is technically rTMS. For simplicity’s sake, we refer to all treatment as TMS therapy.