Üsküdar University participated in the EEG and Clinical Neuroscience Society (ECNS) 2020 Congress, held online and hosted by Munich/Germany this year, with the theme “Update on Clinical Use of Neuromodulation in Neurology and Psychiatry”. Led by Founding Rector Psychiatrist Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan, and with the participation of Prof. Dr. Kemal Arıkan and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Barış Metin, the congress discussed the applications of TMS treatment in psychiatric diseases, and the studies conducted at NPİSTANBUL Brain Hospital and on an international scale, along with their results.
Prof. Tarhan shared deep TMS treatments for OCD and comparative QEEG changes before/after treatment with his presentation titled “Deep TMS in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder”.
Prof. Arıkan, a faculty member of the Department of Mental Health and Diseases, who also participated in the same session, contributed with a statistical analysis of deep TMS applications and QEEG changes in OCD, Depression, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, under the title “Deep Tms related QEEG changes in OCD, Depression, and PTSD and their clinical correlates”. Meanwhile, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Barış Metin, a faculty member of the Department of Neurology, examined the effectiveness of TMS treatment in the increasingly common Tinnitus with his presentation titled “TMS for Tinnitus Treatment”. The session continued with presentations by Dr. Daniel Blumberger, “Advances in the use of theta burst stimulation for the treatment of depression” and Dr. David Cantor, “QEEG Guided Neurofeedback”, and concluded with questions and contributions from over 40 international researchers.
“Joint work is necessary”
Prof. Tarhan, drawing attention to the topic of brain and computational function at the congress held online due to the pandemic, emphasized the importance of a multidisciplinary approach: “Neuroscientists and computer engineers, health physicists and health informaticians need to work together in a neurotech laboratory with brain-computer interfaces, the blue brain project, and genetic engineering techniques.”
“The History of TMS in Psychiatry”
Tarhan also provided information regarding the work of Üsküdar University and NPİSTANBUL Brain Hospital, drawing attention to the history of TMS in psychiatry. Tarhan stated; “The patent was granted in Vienna in 1908. But this was not a new idea. Modern rTMS was invented in 1985. Acute focal rTMS was found to be capable of changing neurohormones and mood. Case reports of mood effects of off-target TMS on the vertex were presented. An open-label study followed by a randomized study of 2 weeks of daily left prefrontal rTMS was conducted. The FDA first approved rTMS for Depression in 2008. The FDA first approved rTMS for Addiction in 2013. The FDA approved dTMS for OCD in 2018.”
Prof. Tarhan will also present his studies investigating the Covid-19 pandemic and its effects at the Society for Brain Mapping and Therapeutics (SBMT) congress on November 21, 2020, in a session titled “Covid-19 Pandemic and Its impact on Neuro-Psychiatric Disorder and global Mental Health:How should we Predict and Prevent Global Pandemic of Mental Illness”, along with Dr. Babak Kateb, Farhad Taghi Zadeh, Prof. Dr. Nesrin Dilbaz, and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Gökben Hızlı Sayar, regarding the ongoing work at NPİSTANBUL Brain Hospital and Üsküdar University, conducted with international researchers.