New Year, New Hope: Could TMS Be Your Answer to Treatment-Resistant Depression?

When you’re living with depression, finding a treatment that works and provides a break from the dark clouds is a top priority.

If 2025 was the year of trying various treatments for depression, but you haven’t yet found relief, our team at RapidRecovery TMS in Wilmington, North Carolina, encourages you to consider trying transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to give you new hope in 2026.

In this month’s blog, we discuss why some forms of depression don’t respond to initial treatment and how TMS might be able to help make your depression more manageable this year. 

Is your depression treatment resistant? 

Depression is often challenging to treat. The first lines of treatment are medications and psychotherapy (talk therapy). 

There are several different types of medications that can make your depression more manageable and various therapy techniques that can help you identify negative thought patterns and provide you with tools for managing daily symptoms.

Unfortunately, two-thirds of people find that the first medication they try provides little to no symptom relief. And one-third of people go through several medications and don’t experience a break in the clouds of depression. 

If your treatments have failed, your depressive episodes are longer or more severe even with treatment, or you’ve also developed anxiety in addition to depression, you may have what’s known as “treatment-resistant” depression. 

The thought of having treatment-resistant depression might seem frightening, but there are innovative treatments to address it, including TMS. 

What is TMS?

TMS is a type of brain stimulation therapy that uses an electromagnetic coil placed on your head to send magnetic pulses to specific regions of your brain. 

Your brain is electrically active, and it uses chemical messengers known as transmitters to communicate with different portions of your brain. Mental health conditions typically form when certain transmitters are too active or not active enough.

To treat mental health conditions, such as depression, TMS therapy sends magnetic pulses to the transmitters that aren’t communicating properly and either makes them more active or less active.

How TMS works for treatment-resistant depression

Typically, when you take medication for depression, it helps your brain better regulate mood and form new connections. This makes it easier for you to implement management strategies learned in therapy. 

However, if medications aren’t effective, managing depression can feel impossible. 

And that’s exactly what TMS addresses. When medication can’t improve brain transmitter function, TMS changes the electrical activity in your brain to help improve mood regulation and brain adaptability. 

Currently, research shows very promising results when TMS is used to treat depression. 

In fact, 50-60% of people who underwent TMS therapy for treatment-resistant depression reported a noticeable reduction in symptoms, and over 30% reported that their depression resolved completely (remission). 

While TMS doesn’t guarantee that your depression will go away forever, it can certainly provide some reprieve while you learn and implement healthy coping strategies. 

To learn if TMS could be what helps you gain new hope in the new year, schedule a consultation with our team by calling our office or using our online booking feature today.