BPD Treatment With TMS

TMS Treatment For Borderline Personality Disorder

In this video, we introduce Robert D. McMullen, MD who is a psychiatrist in NYC who has been performing psychopharmacology for over 30 years, the last 10 of which includes transcranial magnetic stimulation(TMS). Today, he will discuss Borderline Personality Disorder(BPD), as well as TMS as a method of treatment for BPD.

In many cases, those who are diagnosed as having BPD are just bipolar. This is due to the fact that there are many similar symptoms associated with BPD that might exhibit in certain patients causing the psychiatrist to diagnose them with BPD. The best screening questions to ask patients who might be battling BPD is: 1) Do your friends or family complain about your sudden mood swings? 2) Do you think your mood suddenly swings a lot throughout the day?

Symptoms of BPD

In some rare cases, those who battle BPD may experience sudden mood swings every 2 minutes. Some characteristics of someone battling BDP include:

• Feelings of emptiness
• Frantic efforts to avoid being abandoned(ex: someone who thinks their boyfriend/girlfriend will leave them).
• Unstable and intense relationships
• Idealize and then devalue a person based on one minor mistake(no grey area)
• Unstable self-image or sense of self
• Very impulsive with substance abuse or reckless driving
• Self-harming or self-mutilating behavior(ex: cutting their own wrists)
• Getting into irritable moods numerous times throughout the day
• Difficulty controlling emotions
• Can become paranoid or overly suspicious
• Dissociative symptoms(ex: someone who has an argument with their lover and then leaves and finds themselves somewhere else hours later with no memory of how they got there).
• Some are highly susceptible to hypnosis

Treatments:

The main treatment for BPD is Dialectical Behavior Therapy(DBT). However, with TMS, an excitatory treatment on the left side of the brain can help with BPD. In addition, treatment on the right side of the brain also helps with depression. Furthermore, researchers predicted in a study that treating the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex can also help with depression along with treating BPD. This is because since this treatment affects the part of the brain that controls cognitive distortions, it can also help inhibit those distortions that cause depression. This treatment works especially well for those who are overly emotional and irritable.

Another way to treat BPD is an inhibitory treatment on the right orbitofrontal cortex. This was proven in a famous case where a woman, who was battling severe depression, shot herself in the head with a gun. Not only did she survive, but she cured her depression. After performing an X-ray of the woman, doctors discovered that she had blown away her right orbitofrontal cortex thereby inhibiting that area completely. This led researchers to believe that treating this area will, in fact, help with depression. Many subsequent trials proved successful thereby proving that this treatment works. Those who are overly cautious and quiet may respond to this treatment a lot better than others.

In addition, an inhibitory treatment on the preSMA will help with OCD. You can also perform an inhibitory treatment on the right orbitofrontal cortex to treat OCD. Lastly, with the brains way stimulation helmet, you can treat various networks in the brain that causes BPD. Furthermore, TMS treatment was found to be able to treat multiple disorders at once such as OCD, eating disorders, and anxiety disorders.

One patient who will not respond to TMS treatment is someone who does not experience any cognitive distortions. This is due to the fact that most mental illnesses involve some kind of cognitive distortion such as anxiety, low self-esteem, and panic attacks. However, those who battle depression and do not suffer from any distortions will not respond to TMS treatment. The research is still ongoing to treat these kinds of people with TMS.

Conclusion

These are just some of the ways of treating BPD with TMS. In many cases, some people may respond to one of these treatments better than another. Although TMS research is ongoing, many people have already seen the amazing benefits that this treatment has to offer.

To learn more:

Psychiatrist Robert D. McMullen – NYC – Depression Specialist – TMS BrainCare

Location 1: 171 W 79th St #2, New York, NY 10024

Location 2: 344 Main St, Mt Kisco, NY 10549

Phone: (212)362-9635

https://tmsbraincare.com/