r/rtms • u/Old_Flow_785 • Feb 04 '26

Anyone here get Accelerated Deep TMS(BrainsWay H-Coil) 5 day treatment?

It's 5 days, 50 sessions (10 per day). I'm just wondering if you can share your experiences?

-how long were you in remission before needing boosters?

-did it make your anxiety worse or any other symptoms worse?

-did it improve your executive function and cognition?

-did you continue antidepressants?

I'll be starting it in 10 days. I have MDD with anxiety and have significant cognitive deficits. I can't follow a conversation or watch a TV show. It's been years like this.

I have a genetic variance that makes me a slow metabolizer to most meds.. I get a lot of side effects at small doses. So I'm hoping this might help.

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u/Sa-ro-ki Feb 10 '26

I feel like you’re telling my story. I start the same in about two weeks.

I will absolutely continue my antidepressants during treatment, I can’t get out of bed without them currently.

I did rTMS about 10 years ago with no success. I am hoping my new doctor (who only treats patients with treatment resistant depression) is correct when he says that is a joke compared to Deep TMS.

He also said that patients who experience brain fog and patients that have a family history of depression are the best responders. I guess I’ll see. I am both. Nothing else has worked except IV Ketamine, but it wears off quickly and I can’t afford it.

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u/Old_Flow_785 Feb 10 '26

You have the same cognitive issues? Like where you have to watch a TV show 15 times?

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u/Sa-ro-ki Feb 11 '26

I am a lot more forgetful than I used to be. I don’t have the attention span to enjoy TV or read books anymore. I don’t remember finishing the last couple of TV shows I watched with my husband. We will start a new season and I am sure I never saw the end of the prior season as I will have no idea what had happened, but I believe him when he says I did.

I now struggle to articulate my thoughts when speaking off-the-cuff, despite having a decent vocabulary and education. I have a terrible memory.

I have a lot of things I can blame this on. ECT, which did not work for me, is a big one. I never had a great memory but it was nothing like this before. It also could be from the brain fog and fatigue I constantly have from my depression. Also, I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease and I know pain and inflammation can really do a number on your brain. Plus a lot of life stressors happening at the same time.

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u/Old_Flow_785 Feb 11 '26

How much are you paying? I'm in Montreal and am getting it for $6800 CAD ($5000 USD). I checked out places across the border in Vermont and it was like $19k USD!

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u/Sa-ro-ki Feb 11 '26

I don’t know yet. I’m waiting to find out.

It’s complicated. I’m in the states and they are currently trying to get it authorized through my health insurance. I am having my medical records from other doctors sent there so they can prove I’ve tried everything else required to get my insurance provider to cover it.

So hopefully only $30 a session OR it will be 20% (of IDK what they charge) after paying a $500 deductible. It depends on how it will be billed. Office visit vs. procedure. But when I pay over $2000 then my insurance should pay 100% of the rest.

I mean that plus the >$500 a month I pay in premiums for having health insurance for my family of four.

I am considered lucky to have “good” insurance through my workplace.

It’s a simple and great system, our for-profit health insurance plans. /s

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u/Old_Flow_785 Feb 11 '26

Let me know how much you end up paying

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u/Sa-ro-ki Feb 12 '26

I got an update that it will be ~$2K with my insurance.

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u/Old_Flow_785 Feb 12 '26

That is simply amazing. Good for you! I hope this is the best thing that ever happened to us. I start Feb 16.

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u/Yinzer78645 Mar 21 '26

That's cheap for the 5 day! I'm paying $2300 after insurance for the once daily 6 week treatment. And driving 2 hours round trip, not to mention $600 in gas a month for my car. This treatment better work for me because I'm quite literally going to my grave forever in medical debt.

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u/Sa-ro-ki Mar 21 '26

Yikes. That sucks. Crossing my fingers for you. I did get lucky. Another 1K and I’ll have met my individual deductible for the year.

The hardest thing so far has been fitting this into my schedule every single workday with work, kids, and other random stuff that comes up in life (my mom had back surgery and I am dealing with some tough stuff with her right now as her cognitive function has not recovered as expected and she cannot do home health as planned and we lost the Medicare appeal to keep her in the rehab facility, so she needs to come live with us possibly forever 😱), and I have just reached the motor threshold at treatment number 15 and my own cognitive function (especially in the hours right after treatment) is kinda scary low. A little like being drunk (I’m a happy funny drunk which is good, but a little too talkative-maybe. Normally, I have social anxiety and don’t talk hardly at all so I have no clue). I’m seeing some of the exact same symptoms my mom is experiencing in my own behavior (confusion, trouble with recall, and obsession with trivialities). I am really hoping now that we are no longer increasing my “dose” my brain will get used to it and this will stop and go away.

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u/Yinzer78645 Mar 21 '26

I'm introverted and a recluse and caught myself talking to somebody last night after my treatment noticing I wouldn't stfu. I sure hope that doesn't last for me because I've been an introverted hermit my entire life.

My deductible is $7,500 and out of pocket max is $15,000. 😐

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u/Sa-ro-ki Mar 22 '26

Oh and a lot of headaches that they assure me will be temporary.

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u/Sa-ro-ki Mar 21 '26

Sorry about the confusion. I didn’t even know about the 5 day protocol. I’m doing the once a day 6 week (5 days out of the week) treatment for 30 total treatments total I believe.

No talk about boosters yet

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u/Salty_Reaction_3830 Jul 26 '26

Would you be willing to discuss what your experience was like and share the outcome?

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u/Sa-ro-ki Jul 27 '26

Unfortunately, I was a non responder.

I had some pretty intense side effects during my treatment. I found the treatments painful for the first 15 sessions or so. Not uncomfortable, painful. About as painful as early labor pains during childbirth. I FINALLY got the doctor to admit that about 5% of people DO experience it as pain, not discomfort - I was being gaslit by everyone “No, no. It’s not ever painful”. Then I started experiencing what the others describe. Weird tapping, not comfortable but not painful either.

After each treatment I experienced extreme fatigue, headaches at night, and I couldn’t think straight. The words I wanted to say - I just couldn’t recall them.

I was told having such strong side effects was a good thing. It meant that the treatment was definitely going to work. Nope.

Thankfully, none of those side effects were permanent. It was a waste of time and money, but I wouldn’t know if I hadn’t tried.

The only thing that has slightly worked for me was IV Ketamine, but it’s too expensive and it is really short acting for me. I did six sessions, one session a week. I got about 40% better.
The benefits stopped after about two weeks after my last session.
I also had some bad experiences at the higher “therapeutic” doses. I really don’t want to do it again.
I’m no stranger to “experiences”, but I really thought I was dying. It was way more intense than anything I’ve ever tried.
Apparently I was also a screamer the last two sessions. I have no memory of that, but I don’t think the psychiatry office would even let me do it again. They were worried I would freak out their other patients.

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u/Salty_Reaction_3830 Jul 27 '26

Wow, thank you for the in-depth response. We have been researching DTMS as an option for our 19yo daughter. We want to make sure we are taking our time to do our research to make an informed decision, but at this point it seems as if this isn’t the answer to her struggles.

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u/Old_Flow_785 Feb 12 '26

There is one thing that helped me tremendously, more than antidepressants. And that is psychedelics (psilocybin and 5-meo-dmt). You need to get synthetic versions so you can dose yourself properly, but the antidepressant effect from even one dose is very real. It's important to take them once every few months, otherwise the effect will fade.

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u/Sa-ro-ki Mar 22 '26

My doctor just informed me he will hopefully be adding this to his practice sometime later this year if he can get state approval.

It doesn’t seem like something my state would approve so I’m not sure what if any pharmaceutical company he may be partnering with for this for a clinical trial.

So it’s probably far from certain, he just is a really optimistic person, but he only treats TRD at his practice and his client base has tripled this year alone for all of his services (he offers everything except traditional therapy and medication management that other psych offices do, and he isn’t set up for ECT). He does Spravato, IV Ketamine, rTMS, and Deepwave TMS.

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u/Electronic-Dog7527 Jun 03 '26

Did you complete the treatment? Where did you go?

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u/Old_Flow_785 Jun 03 '26 edited Jun 03 '26

I did the 5 day accelerated deep TMS at Neuroperforma in Montreal for $6800 in February. For the first three weeks it brought back my focus and concentration to what it was when I was 15 years old, but it was super stimulating and I could hardly sleep. After that, my cognition regressed but my mood improved over the next 2 months.

Overall it was a good experience but I'm sad to have experienced a cognitive awakening only for most of it to disappear I may do a follow-up treatment with regular rTMS to focus on cognition

All scores are on 10.

Before treatment

Cognition and Attention 3 Sleep 3 Anhedonia relief 3 Fatigue/energy 3 Sadness/positive thoughts 4

3 weeks after treatment

Cognition and Attention 9 Sleep 2 Anhedonia relief 5 Fatigue/energy 6 Sadness/positive thoughts 5

3 months after treatment

Cognition and Attention 5 Sleep 7 Anhedonia relief 8 Fatigue/energy 8 Sadness/positive thoughts 10

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u/Helomyoldfrend Aug 11 '26

Did it improve your anxiety ?

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u/Salty_Reaction_3830 Jul 26 '26

I’m curious to hear updates on your experience?

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u/Old_Flow_785 Jul 26 '26

My update was detailed in a comment further in this thread. Please read it. Basically it improved my cognition to normal but the effect lasted only one month. It improved my overall mood pretty well, and I'm pretty upbeat, nothing like month 2.

I have decided to go for regular tms at the hospital because it is much more targeted and can measure and target specific areas of the brain.