Before undergoing TMS treatment, you must receive a comprehensive psychiatric evaluation to determine if TMS would be appropriate for you. Please contact us and psychiatric evaluation and consultation. If approved for TMS, one will typically undergo a series of 30-36 treatments over the course of 5 to 7 weeks, working out to approximately 5 treatments per week. However, the treatment plan will depend on the needs and characteristics of each patient. Each TMS treatment lasts around 20 minutes, with the initial treatment lasting up 45 minutes due to the additional steps detailed below. Before the initial treatment, the patient will be seated in a comfortable reclining chair and a psychiatrist will first comfortably fit the coils on the patient's head and place them on the appropriate location of the skull. They will then perform a test to properly detect the patient's motor threshold, which is the level of magnetic field strength that results in movement of the patient's right thumb. Based on this motor threshold, the psychiatrist will calibrate the machine to deliver the correct strength of the magnetic pulses.To begin the treatment, the TMS machine will deliver magnetic pulses via the coil to the targeted area of the brain in rapid succession over the course of 30 second intervals. As these pulses will sound like rapid tapping on the skull, the patient can use their own non-metal headphones to listen to music or use provided ear plugs to reduce noise. The treatment should be painless for the patient. If there is any discomfort during the treatment, the physician can make adjustments.