{"id":1418,"date":"2011-02-01T10:57:15","date_gmt":"2011-02-01T14:57:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/ombs\/?p=1418"},"modified":"2011-02-01T10:57:15","modified_gmt":"2011-02-01T14:57:15","slug":"f-magnets-how-do-they-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/2011\/02\/01\/f-magnets-how-do-they-work\/","title":{"rendered":"F&#8212;&#8212; Magnets, How Do They Work?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"addthis_button\" href=\"http:\/\/www.addthis.com\/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=xa-4bb6bcc8320e5dd9\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/s7.addthis.com\/static\/btn\/v2\/lg-share-en.gif\" alt=\"Bookmark and Share\" width=\"125\" height=\"16\" \/><\/a><script src=\"http:\/\/s7.addthis.com\/js\/250\/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4bb6bcc8320e5dd9\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- AddThis Button END --><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-thumbnail wp-image-1442\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/files\/2011\/01\/images-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"Magnet\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/p>\n<p>It has been said \u201cThe most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not &#8216;Eureka!&#8217; but &#8216;That&#8217;s funny&#8230;&#8217;\u201d (Isaac Asimov), and a recent observation by a Harvard Medical School lab studying the brain chemistry of Bipolar Disorder has researchers uttering that precise phrase&#8230;as well as the one alluded to in the title of this post.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/2004\/01.22\/01-depression.html\">initial study<\/a> prompting such observations recruited patients suffering specifically from Bipolar Disorder, also known as Manic-Depression, for 20-minute brain scans in an MRI.\u00a0 MRI scans subject patients to a harmless magnetic field and pulses of radio waves to create detailed structural images of various body parts, in this case, the brain.\u00a0 While the procedure is painless and relatively short, it can be unpleasant for reasons wholly unrelated to the magnets and radio signals; patients frequently report unrelated bodily discomfort or claustrophobia.\u00a0 For this reason it was all the more surprising, according to one researcher, that patients participating in the study started to report mood elevations (that for some lasted days or even a week) following the scan.\u00a0 One patient even subtly suggested that the researchers had slipped her something without her permission.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1443\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1443\" style=\"width: 254px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1443      \" src=\"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/files\/2011\/01\/dn7_transcranial-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"dn7_transcranial\" width=\"244\" height=\"244\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/files\/2011\/01\/dn7_transcranial-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/files\/2011\/01\/dn7_transcranial-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/files\/2011\/01\/dn7_transcranial.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 244px) 100vw, 244px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1443\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Patient undergoing TMS treatment for depression<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The use of magnets to improve the effects of depression is not uncharted territory in neuroscience and it might even sound familiar to some.\u00a0 Transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS, is another technique that has recently been adapted to depression therapy, yet it is more akin to electroconvulsive, or \u201celectroshock\u201d, therapy (ECT) than MRI.<\/p>\n<p>TMS uses a magnetic field to induce a relatively small electric current, without causing seizure or loss of consciousness, to stimulate the left prefrontal cortex, the area thought to be under-active in depression. \u00a0Whereas ECT treatments are utilized only in the most extreme depression cases because of the risk of seizure and necessity of sedation, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nimh.nih.gov\/science-news\/2010\/magnetic-stimulation-scores-modest-success-as-antidepressant.shtml\">TMS carries much fewer risks<\/a> and can be used for more <a href=\"http:\/\/www.medpagetoday.com\/MeetingCoverage\/APA\/20398\">mild depression<\/a>. While the exact mechanisms are still not known, particularly the roll of seizure for the antidepressant effects, both ECT and TMS have been cleared by the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.webmd.com\/depression\/news\/20081008\/fda-oks-tms-depression-device\">FDA<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>But the magnet employed in MRI does not excite specific brain regions (if it did the entire imaging method of functional magnetic resonance imaging, fMRI, would be ineffective) and it is certainly not strong enough to induce seizures. \u00a0After observing the curious side-effects of their initial study, the aforementioned researchers set up a small preliminary study with both bipolar and normal controls who confirmed respectively that the effects were not placebo, and that even those without depression can experience the mood-boosting effects of MRI.<\/p>\n<p>So could a new depression treatment soon be joining the ranks of such accidental scientific breakthroughs as penicillin and Post-It notes?\u00a0 At this point it really is unclear.\u00a0 The actual mechanism of the mood-boosting effects of MRI on depressed patients is not yet understood, nor have the effects been generalized to unipolar depression.\u00a0 However, the safety of exposure to MRI has been confirmed by the FDA and a lack of total understanding regarding what causes the \u201cmiraculous\u201d effects of that other magnet-based depression treatment, TMS, as well as a host of other medical treatments (including lithium for Bipolar Disorder) certainly has not prevented their use.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1448\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1448\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-1448\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/files\/2011\/01\/audiofile33-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"Picture Unrelated\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1448\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Picture Unrelated<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It has been said \u201cThe most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not &#8216;Eureka!&#8217; but &#8216;That&#8217;s funny&#8230;&#8217;\u201d (Isaac Asimov), and a recent observation by a Harvard Medical School lab studying the brain chemistry of Bipolar Disorder has researchers uttering that precise phrase&#8230;as well as the one alluded to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3601,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[589],"tags":[646,742,764,896,936,1129],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1418"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3601"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1418\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}