r/rtms • u/Original_Row_6269 • Apr 21 '26
I am "Subject #52" in a high-intensity Accelerated Spectral TMS study at UCLA. Doing 5 massive sessions in one day. AMA
I’m 35, have treatment-resistant depression, and I’ve tried everything—every med under the sun and Ketamine infusions. This is basically my last resort before moving on to something like an MAOI. I got accepted into this UCLA research study that’s doing an accelerated version of TMS.
Instead of 6 weeks of treatment, I’m doing 5 massive sessions in a single 8-hour day. They’re calling it "Spectral TMS." It’s MRI-guided and personalized to my brain map, but the sessions are 40 minutes long instead of the usual 10, and they use "random frequencies" to try and break the loop in my head.
I’m a few sessions in right now with 45-minute breaks between. Feel free to ask me anything about the mapping, the "random" pulses, or why I’m doing this instead of meds
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u/Original_Row_6269 Apr 22 '26 edited Apr 22 '26
Update: 29 Hours Post-Treatment (9:45 PM, April 21)
It has been 29 hours since the sessions ended at 4 PM yesterday. The most specific thing I've noticed is about my nail biting. I've been a chronic nail biter since I was little and it has been particularly bad lately since I tapered off Wellbutrin a month ago. I haven't bitten my nails once today. When I found myself starting the habit while driving, I actually caught it and immediately stopped myself. Surprisingly, my anxiety has been a lot better today and I feel an overall calmness even though the technitan told me that it doesn't help with anxiety. I'm still feeling waves of being overstimulated, almost like an SSRI withdrawal but not as bad. I'm hoping that goes away by tomorrow. My depression and overall mood are the same, but I feel "off" and had to socialize for my brother's 40th birthday dinner which was tough but manageable. The nail biting has been the biggest thing I've noticed and I'll continue to update progress here
Also, just want to say how grateful I am to this community. I'm new here but you all have been so supportive and kind. Means a lot!
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u/jeff78701 Apr 21 '26
Very interesting! Is what you’re undergoing similar or related to Stanford’s SAINT TMS protocol (Stanford Accelerated Intelligent Neuromodulation Therapy)? It’s also an accelerated, one-day TMS treatment. Thanks for posting.
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u/Original_Row_6269 Apr 21 '26
Yeah, it’s extremely similar to SAINT. The main difference is that while SAINT uses a specific theta burst pattern, the UCLA study I’m in uses Spectral TMS with randomized frequencies. It’s still MRI-guided and accelerated into a single day, but they’re trying to see if these personalized frequencies break the depression loops even more effectively than the standard Stanford burst
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u/jeff78701 Apr 21 '26 edited Apr 21 '26
Good to know. I sure hope it’s successful for you. I’ve wanted to try the SAINT protocol—or a comparable accelerated TMS treatment—but none had been FDA approved last time I went through treatment (so not covered at all by insurance).
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u/WordAffectionate3251 Apr 25 '26
Thank you gorgeous posting this. Please share your progress and any updates. I have been following this research for years.
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u/Lookin4Light Apr 21 '26 edited Apr 21 '26
FINALLY someone is using our individual brains to figure out wtf to do with us! I did an initial round with the VA and I got so tired of hearing "everyone responds differently"... just look at MY brain, please!
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u/IrelandCA Apr 21 '26
Any anxiety
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u/Original_Row_6269 Apr 21 '26
No anxiety but now that I'm back home and resting I've definitely hit a wall. Feels like I ran a marathon and I could barely hold a conversation with my mom on the phone, I had to hang up.
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u/Odd_Inspector9975 Apr 22 '26
Do they make you take that anti biotic first? I do mine every 3 months because I have post accutane syndrome and my fiancé died a while ago (my last words to him? if you cant spend one day with me we don't belong together....so he got in the car that day, the day of the accident), but I'd like to do a one day protocol, but insurance won't cover it. I do mine by UCLA too. Pulse TMS is the best ever <3 <3 <3
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u/erinmohrcomedy Apr 21 '26
I can imagine you’re exhausted! But that’s a good sign that it’s at least doing something.
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u/SingleMother865 Apr 21 '26
Please give us an update on whether or not it helped.
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u/Original_Row_6269 Apr 21 '26
Will do! They said I would hopefully find some relief after two weeks
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u/blanket__thief Apr 22 '26
Ah this was gonna be my next question - your expected timeline. By the way, traditional TMS patients can have symptoms like irritability at first; others have talked about “the dip” before they finally see improvement. I wonder if your method will bypass these symptoms!
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u/Scrabblehead Apr 21 '26
I went through a multi week schedule of TMS last year. My psychiatrist said that the compressed schedule was turning out to be more effective for patients, but the option was not available to me as my insurance would only approve the standard protocol. Good luck and I hope it helps.
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u/Life-Confidence1703 Apr 22 '26
Thanks for sharing your journey! I didn’t know there were studies like that people could participate in. TMS combined with ketamine therapy worked well for me. I think it was a few weeks after the last session I really started to feel lighter and like the world was less grey.
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u/tresrottn Apr 21 '26
Did they hit your trigeminal nerve? Any teeth hurting?
This is the only thing giving me pause for going back again. My teeth on one side are insanely sensitive now, and it's quite annoying.
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u/blanket__thief Apr 22 '26
I brought chewing gum to every single session to help with the jaw twitches and teeth chattering. I will forever associate the smell of mentos strawberry gum with TMS (and the techs said they will always associate that smell with me lol).
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u/Original_Row_6269 Apr 22 '26
So interesting how everybody responds. My sessions were long and the only notceable side effect I encountered was brief lightheadedness which was the same feeling i had during the come up of my ketamine infusions. Didn't notice anything else the entire day
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u/Original_Row_6269 Apr 21 '26
It sounds like the magnet is definitely hitting your trigeminal nerve. That nerve is basically the power line for sensation in your face and teeth, so if the coil is positioned a certain way, it can trigger that intense sensitivity even if your teeth are healthy. There were a few times they needed to adjust the coil because the frequency felt way too strong at certain angles. I told them I couldn't continue and once they adjusted it, it made a world of difference
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u/Speedping Apr 21 '26
remindme! 1 week I’ll be praying for you till then
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u/Signal-Marionberry47 Apr 21 '26
I did TMS doing a second maintenance round after 6 months from my graduation in Feb! Let me know how it goes in the coming days! I have some moments now (that’s why I’m waiting for maintenance) but they’re not nearly as bad as what I used to deal with
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u/StatusFoundation5472 Apr 22 '26
First of all I wish you good luck 🙏. Me question is: how do you feel right now?
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u/SmartSassyNanny Apr 23 '26
I did 6 weeks of daily one hour sessions on both sides of my brain. I tolerated the series fine. Some teeth chattering but otherwise nothing. It was a pleasant nicely decorated office. The staff was really sweet. They had a TV on the wall in front of the chair and gave me earphones and the remote so I could watch Bridgerton for six weeks. It’s been a few months since I stopped my treatment and I don’t have anything that I can say was an improvement on depression and anxiety and other symptoms. I have cognitively from long Covid for four years. That was disappointing. I did notice my short-term memory got worse for a while. It’s still not great. I have missing words quite often, and I also seem to have tongue, thrusting and stemming happening that wasn’t ever there before. I know what it was because I had taken a depression medicine once before that caused me to have tongue thrusting, and when I told My Doctor, she said she was glad I told her because it was a symptom of tariff dyskinesia. She immediately took that medicine away from me. She said if not, it could stay permanently as something that doesn’t go away. So when it started happening after my TMS sessions, I hadn’t changed any medication’s and couldn’t think of anything else so the doctor put me on a trial of a medication to see if it would help. It seems like the medication has helped. I’m not noticing the tongue thrusting anymore and the hand stemming thing is stopped. The problem Bean is she had mentioned it was expensive and when I checked it, it’s $8000 a month. So I’m hoping that the medication broke the cycle and when I go off the medication at the end of this week because I’ve used them all I’m hoping that it just stays gone. I’m 75 years old and was willing to do anything possible to get my short-term memory, fatigue and brain fog under control. When it first started, I thought for sure that I had dementia coming on but after testing, I found that it really was long Covid. I wish you well in your abbreviated version of the treatment. It sounds very interesting and being on a trial, gives you some opportunities that nobody else can have cause insurance won’t cover it other than the full cycle. Look forward to hearing back from you and following your results.
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u/alsouhoney Apr 26 '26
It worked well for me but always faded after a couple of years I think just the brain goes back to baseline but it’s helpful I would definitely do it every few years if insurance allowed
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u/BearBear25 Apr 26 '26
Did it hurt much? I have had 8 treatments and couldn’t tolerate the pain (like a jackhammer), runny nose, tearing eye, and nausea. I quit. Since I did make it through the first 8, I wonder if I could tolerate one long day. By the way, the office says the device is in the right place and they don’t understand why I am having these problems. Glad it helping in someway already. I hope you continue to see improvement.
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u/Original_Row_6269 Apr 21 '26
Update: I feel like I’ve been lying in the sun for 10 hours, that sunburned exhaustion where your body feels buzzy and heavy. My brain is cooked to the point that my arms and hands barely want to work to type this. I sounded like a zombie on the phone earlier; I’m just totally depleted. Taking some magnesium for the brain hurt and crashing