News & Research, Treatment

Update on Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Device Availability

Cerena, the transcranial magnetic stimulation device that the FDA approved in December, is a prototype that will not be made commercially available. Instead, eNeura Therapeutics, the company that created the Cerena, is working on a smaller, more portable, and easier-to-use device, which they anticipate manufacturing later this year. Having the Cerena’s approval in hand is expected to speed up the FDA’s approval of the new device.

Once the new device has been manufactured, it will be tested in a pilot study at six headache clinics in the U.S. The goal of the pilot study is to determine the optimal use of the device for treating migraine. About 600 patients are expected to participate. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you how to become a patient tester because I don’t know exactly which clinics will be part of the pilot study.

The researcher organizing the pilot study, who happens to be my headache specialist, is hopeful that the study will begin in May or June of this year and that the device will be commercially available in January 2015. I would love for that to be the case, but January 2016 seems more likely.

Sorry I don’t have better news for those of you who are eager to try TMS. I’ve been waiting for it for so long that another year or two doesn’t seem like an eternity, but I’m also not currently desperate for relief.

(I’m not naming the researcher because I received this information in a private appointment, not in an interview. While the information is not confidential, attributing something my headache specialist said during an appointment seems like a breach of boundaries.)