There are numerous therapies and medications for mild cognitive impairment, and many try yet fail to maintain a stable level of cognitive abilities. Unfortunately, many patients still experience a decline in cognitive impairment with more traditional therapies and medications, although it is at a slower rate than if they were not undergoing treatment.
It is important to recognize that taking medication for cognitive impairment can elicit drug-to-drug interactions with other medications the patient has to take. These interactions can cause severe and dangerous side effects, which negatively impact the patient’s overall well-being and path to treatment.
TMS therapy has none of the systematic side effects associated with traditional medications used to treat mild dementia. And TMS does not illicit drug-to-drug interactions that can occur when taking multiple medications. This is because TMS works by sending electromagnetic pulses directly to the brain, and does not enter the bloodstream like medications do.
If patients are worried about taking more medications that may interact with other medications they are already taking, or if they have experienced health problems from taking such medications, then TMS could be a great treatment option for them to try.
Also, while medications and therapies may merely keep a patient’s cognitive ability stable, patients undergoing TMS treatments have shown an improvement in their cognitive abilities. (If you want to get technical, studies have shown that for mild cognitive impairment, the ADAS COG score improved by 3 points, and for dementia, the ADAS COG score improved about 4 points.) Generally, these scores get worse. While stability is good, improvement is even better.
