Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/11/30/zapping-the-brain-with-magneti.html
…
3 Likes
Prause says it would be interesting to know if people having TMS for depression report any changes in their sex lives. “But no one asks them.”
3 Likes
This is not true, question 21 on Beck’s Depression Inventory (BDI, http://www.hr.ucdavis.edu/asap/pdf_files/Beck_Depression_Inventory.pdf), one of the most common assessments given to depressed people, asks about interest in sex.
7 Likes
I used the BDI for all my pickup lines…
4 Likes
This is something given to people undergoing transcranial magnetic stimulation? Somebody ought to tell Dr. Prause.
1 Like
I’m tapering off TMS for depression, and I had to fill out this inventory once a week over the whole process (started in Sept.). It’s one way they can gauge your progress (if any - I had a very good experience).
5 Likes
Let me know when they start testing TMS on tinnitus…
I’d read that it can have an effect on it, but mine is still the same. I thought for a little while it had changed in tone, but my hearing test a week ago was exactly the same as last year, so wishful thinking? (Or maybe it’s just that my hearing blows regardless of the frequency of the ringing.)
1 Like
Yeah, loss of sex drive is a common symptom of depression. TMS treats depression. Perhaps the effect on sex drive is merely a result of alleviating anxiety? or maybe TMS boosts sex drive and the results on depression stem from that?
1 Like
How do you REDUCE sex drive. Seems to me that gets people in more trouble than low sex drive.
1 Like
Fucking and magnets! How do they work?
13 Likes
You can also make people horny by bombarding the brain with photons.
They just have to be channeled through the retina and arranged in the form of hot naked people.
13 Likes
“Depending on how quick they were, they were given a genital buzz lasting between half a second and five seconds – but only after a pause.”
I mean…couldn’t it just be that “genital buzzes” increases libido?
2 Likes
I’m zapping right now!
3 Likes
It doesn’t boost libido, it just demagnetizes your moral compass.
5 Likes
There’s a joke in here but I’m not sure it’s as funny as I think it is.
3 Likes
It just increases reaction time.
1 Like
Dog, I know! Many labs I have talked to do not use BDI (it doesn’t correspond very well to actual depression diagnoses). One that did actually used a short form that didn’t include it. You would be suprised how unimportant people think sex is, even though sexual side effects remain the #1 reason people cite for quitting anti-depressants!
I haven’t given up, I always ask when I run into TMS scientists studying depression, but they also will never assess it as well as we did. 
4 Likes
Oh yes it is as funny as it sounds…but also a way stronger approach than what we were stuck with before.
3 Likes
