The United States is in the midst of a crisis of suicide, and TMS providers often must confront this directly. In this presentation, Dr. Philip will provide a brief overview of the existing TMS protocols used to reduce suicidal ideation, reviewing their efficacy and also burden of administration. He will describe an ongoing clinical trial combining TMS plus psychotherapy for PTSD, and outline his own clinical approach to treating suicidal patients, so that attendees can consider how they can address this critically important issue.

Although not labeled as such by the FDA, TMS is considered a third line treatment by many practitioners and health insurance company policies. Earlier referral to TMS is not commonly practiced but may be non-inferior to or superior to medication switches or augmentation. Our field lacked trials that compared different modalities of treatment in parallel with TMS until recently, which is the subject of this webinar.