Anxiety

About 40 million adults suffer from anxiety disorders today — and about half of people who seek medical care don’t respond to treatment. At Anxiety Rise TMS, leading board-certified psychiatrist Priya Parmar, MD, and her caring team offer unique approaches for people with treatment-resistant anxiety. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and ketamine can rewire the brain to give you long-lasting positive change. Call the Westlake Village, California, office today or book your appointment online.

What is anxiety?

Anxiety disorders cause frequent fears, worries, and feelings of dread. Unlike ordinary anxiety, anxiety disorders continue for weeks, months, and years, unsettling your daily life.

What are the symptoms of an anxiety disorder?

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is the most common anxiety disorder. It causes anxiety for extended periods, producing symptoms that include:

• Inability to control worrying
• Feelings of impending doom
• Tiredness
• Irritability
• Restlessness
• Feeling on-edge
• Insomnia
• Poor concentration

GAD can also cause physical symptoms like headaches, sweating, shaking, and weakness.

Other anxiety disorders include panic, social anxiety, and phobia-related disorders. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), once known as an anxiety disorder, is now classified as a trauma- and stressor-related disorder.

What causes anxiety disorders?

Life experiences, genetics, and physical health appear to play a role in developing anxiety disorders. Most people with anxiety disorders share disruptions within the salience network, the parts of your brain involved in mood.

Broken or dead connections in this network can significantly increase negative thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. So if you experience anxiety with a damaged salience network, the anxiety is more likely to persist and get worse instead of fading away once a stressful situation ends.

How are anxiety disorders treated?

The traditional approach to anxiety disorder treatment involves medication and psychotherapy. But about 50% of people with anxiety disorders don’t get good results with these approaches.

Medication can’t efficiently rebuild broken brain connections, so it’s often ineffective in helping you retrain your thought processes. Rise TMS uses alternative treatments that awaken dormant parts of the brain, increase beneficial brain chemicals, and retrain the thought processes.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)

The leading-edge Apollo TMS Therapy System™ sends painless magnetic pulses to the salience network as you relax in an ergonomic chair. Sessions last 19 minutes, and a series of sessions can offer significant relief from debilitating anxiety. TMS can rewire your brain for lasting healing. Studies show that TMS can reduce anxiety symptoms by more than half, with long-term results.

Ketamine

Ketamine infusions deliver a low dose of an anesthetic that provides almost instant beneficial effects. It repairs neural connections and helps you replace anxious thoughts with healthier thought patterns. Studies show that ketamine can reduce anxiety symptoms in as little as an hour.

Rise TMS recommends psychotherapy alongside TMS or ketamine for the best results. Call the office today or book your consultation online to learn more about these powerful alternative anxiety treatments.

*Ketamine and TMS are not yet FDA-approved for the treatment of anxiety. Results may vary.