Kadima Neuropsychiatry Institute Among First Centers to Provide Novel OCD Treatment Recently Approved by the FDA

LA JOLLA, Calif., Aug. 22, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The FDA has given a thumbs-up to a revolutionary new treatment for patients suffering with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The treatment is a novel version of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), a non-invasive method of stimulating selective brain areas by targeting them with a pulsating magnetic field. One in 40 adults and one in 100 children in the U.S. suffer from OCD and many of them do not get adequate relief from the medications and behavioral therapy which is currently the mainstay of treatment. "This is an important development for the millions of people who suffer from OCD," declared David Feifel, MD, PhD, professor emeritus at University of California, San Diego and director of Kadima Neuropsychiatry Institute in La Jolla, California, a center that specializes in using advanced treatments for various neuropsychiatric disorders.

The breakthrough OCD treatment is made possible by an advanced TMS helmet, called "H7" developed by Brainsway Inc., an Israeli company that invented "Deep TMS," a technology that can stimulate deeper areas of the brain  than other currently available TMS systems.  "The H7 helmet corrects the abnormal firing occurring in certain neural circuits in the brains' of people with OCD,  explained Dr. Feifel who is a leading TMS provider and sits on a committee of prominent brain scientists advising Brainsway.

Dr. Feifel was one of a handful of international researchers involved in a recent multi-site clinical trial whose findings led to the FDA approval.  The researchers studied 100 people suffering from OCD despite having been treated with medication and they found that daily treatment with the H7 helmet for 6 weeks produced about twice the degree of reduction in OCD symptoms than a "sham" or placebo helmet that looked and sounded identical.  Dr. Feifel believes the FDA decision has implications beyond OCD. "This is an important milestone for the emerging field of TMS because it is the first FDA clearance of a TMS-based treatment for an indication other than depression and thus confirms that deep TMS has applications far beyond just depression." Feifel predicts that there will be a deep TMS treatment option for most psychiatric and neurological disorders in the near future and his team at Kadima are currently investigating TMS for several other potential conditions including PTSD and addiction. "This is an exciting time to be a physician treating brain disorders and I am proud to have been involved in the development of this new treatment for OCD."

Kadima is one of a very few institutions in the world to have the H7 helmet which, until the FDA's announcement, could only be used for approved research.  "We can now begin to actually treat people with the H7 helmet," said Dr. Feifel, though he cautioned that the treatment is not yet covered by any insurance company.  

In addition to providing deep TMS, Kadima specializes in using ketamine, an anesthetic drug that has been shown to effectively treat depression, anxiety and PTSD.  Dr. Feifel was the first doctor to treat depression with ketamine infusions while he was a tenured professor at UC San Diego and has continued to innovate the use of that drug at Kadima.

About Kadima Neuropsychiatry Institute
The mission of Kadima Neuropsychiatry Institute is to help people with neuropsychiatric conditions who have not benefited from conventional treatments by developing and utilizing cutting edge brain treatments.  For more information go to www.kadimanp.com

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