Press release, Helsinki, 5 June 2020 at 9.30 am (EEST)
Nexstim Plc (NXTMH:HEX, NXTMS:STO) ("Nexstim" or "Company") announces that the company’s NBT® system installed in Rockford Psychiatric Medical Services, US has generated positive feedback from its use in treating patients with depression.
The NBT® system with SmartFocus® TMS was installed at the Rockford Psychiatric in fall 2019. Rockford Psychiatric is a private clinic in Illinois, United States. Rockford Psychiatric’s patients have access to intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS), for which Nexstim NBT® system was FDA cleared in March 2019.
Dr. William J. Giakas, CEO of Rockford Psychiatric Medical Services, commented:
“Intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS-TMS) is a 50 Hz (50 cycles per second) stimulation delivered in just over 3 minutes compared to traditional TMS which delivers 10 Hz stimulation over 19 minutes or longer. Simulation of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex creates stimulation of the network of mood-related circuits on both sides of the brain. There is some scientific evidence that the 50 Hz stimulation of theta burst may induce more persisting positive changes in these mood circuits after a treatment series.
My patients tolerate the 3-minute iTBS-TMS treatment exceptionally well and the response rates, even for patient who failed numerous medications, has been impressive. The Nexstim SmartFocus® technology uses the patient’s own MRI of the brain to locate the important structures which need to be stimulated. This system takes the guesswork out of finding the correct area to stimulate, compared to other systems which only estimate the correct area, or other systems which too widely stimulate the brain, and include areas not related to mood.
Many patients prefer this non-medication form of antidepressant/antianxiety treatment and are themselves surprised at the positive results. Even patients who have had chronic depression are impressed. One patient explained that, ‘the black cloud has lifted for the first time in over 20 years.’ We also combine medication treatment with TMS in many cases, to achieve the very best results.”
Mikko Karvinen, CEO of Nexstim Plc said: “We are happy to share this positive feedback from our user like Dr. Giakas who has extensive experience in the field of depression treatment and psychiatry in general. The need for new and efficient depression treatments is likely to grow and we are proud to be ahead of the curve by offering SmartFocus® TMS Therapy for patients with our user clinics worldwide.“
Further information is available on the website www.nexstim.com, or by contacting:
Mikko Karvinen, CEO
+358 50 326 4101
mikko.karvinen@nexstim.com
About Nexstim Plc
Nexstim is a Finnish, globally operating medical technology company. Our mission is to enable personalized and effective therapies and diagnostics for challenging brain diseases and disorders.
Nexstim has developed a world-leading non-invasive brain stimulation technology called SmartFocus®. It is a navigated transcranial magnetic stimulation (nTMS) technology with highly sophisticated 3D navigation providing accurate and personalized targeting of the TMS to the specific area of the brain.
SmartFocus® technology is used in Nexstim’s proprietary Navigated Brain Therapy (NBT®) system, which is FDA cleared for marketing and commercial distribution for the treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD) in the United States. In Europe, the NBT® system is CE marked for the treatment of major depression and chronic neuropathic pain.
In addition, Nexstim is commercializing its SmartFocus® based Navigated Brain Stimulation (NBS) system for diagnostic applications. The NBS system is the only FDA cleared and CE marked navigated TMS system for pre-surgical mapping of the speech and motor cortices of the brain. Nexstim shares are listed on the Nasdaq First North Growth Market Finland and Nasdaq First North Growth Market Sweden.