“Of all the people who take antidepressants for depression, up to one-third feel no better even after several trials of medication,” says Dr. J. Douglas Brown, DC, DACNB, at Mind Performance Center in Foley. Brown offers proven therapies to improve symptoms in people with treatment-resistant depression. Depression causes a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest. Also called 'major depressive disorder' or clinical depression, it can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems such as headaches and chronic pain. People that suffer from depression may have trouble doing normal day-to-day activities and sometimes feel as if life isn't worth living. More than just a bout of the blues, depression isn’t a weakness and most cannot simply ‘snap out of it.’ It may require long-term and specialized treatment, but there is hope.
Deep Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (dTMS) uses magnetic pulses to stimulate nerve activity in the underactive brain area responsible for depression. As dTMS restores normal nerve activity and brain pathways, symptoms improve. Restoring brain imbalances through therapeutic exercise stimulates specific areas of the brain to develop new pathways, which is the work of brain rehabilitation. Functional medicine seeks to discover the root cause of symptoms and treat them through natural means, viewing the body as one integrated system, instead of a collection of independent organs divided up by medical specialties. Functional medicine uses five major lifestyle factors—nutrition, exercise, recovery, stress management and relationships. With all three treatments delivered simultaneously, Brown says he has seen results for 90 to 95 percent of his patients, with many of them relating amazing results. Post-therapy, one patient shared, “I feel like I have been living underground only to emerge from a manhole to feel the sunlight on my face for the first time.”