Can a 'brain massage' battle the potentially life-threatening effects of depression?

That's the hope behind a relatively new treatment, called Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS for short), which is showing impressive results in the treatment of depression among test cases in the UK.

TMS sends magnetic pulses of low-level electric current through specific parts of the brain, stimulating or suppressing the cells and potentially – so the theory goes – changing their behaviour. It's been around for a while, but has only recently been fine-tuned; the National Institute for Clinical Excellence backed TMS in 2015, recognising it as a safe and effective treatment for a range of disorders including neuropathic pain, de-personalisation syndrome, depression and addiction.

For Freddie Webster, 27, it's not an exaggeration to say TMS may have saved his life.

“I’ve battled depression for the past 10 years, combating it with drugs in the darkest moments when my thoughts turned to suicide,” says the website designer from Surrey.

“When I was first diagnosed with a depressive disorder the symptoms would begin with me feeling down about everything, having a bleak outlook, lacking energy but having heightened anxiety. Then I would descend into bouts of clinical depression. I’d lose focus, I couldn’t concentrate, my memory would suffer, it ruined relationships and jobs. I’d have suicidal thoughts.”