TMS for Treatment-Resistant Depression in San Diego
If you've tried two or more medications and depression still runs your life, you may have treatment-resistant depression, and it's exactly what TMS was cleared for. Evaluated, planned, and supervised personally by Dr. Mario Salguero, MD, PhD.
Why Patients Choose Us
Which medications, at what doses, for how long, Dr. Salguero works through your actual treatment history before deciding anything, because that history is what defines treatment resistance.
TMS earned its FDA clearance in patients whose depression didn't respond adequately to antidepressants. It isn't a last resort, it's the indicated next step.
After years of side effects and switching medications, many patients want relief that doesn't come in a bottle. TMS is non-systemic, you stay awake and drive yourself home.
Sometimes the answer is a smarter medication plan, not more of the same. Because Dr. Salguero is a full psychiatrist, you get that judgment too, not just the treatment a clinic happens to sell.
Is This You?
Our Approach
Meet Your Psychiatrist
A board-certified psychiatrist and former chief resident at UC San Diego, Dr. Salguero holds an MD-PhD and plans and delivers your TMS himself. For treatment-resistant depression, that matters: the physician reading your medication history is the same one designing what comes next.
How to Get Started
Call, text, or send the form. Bring your medication history if you have it, it speeds everything up.
Dr. Salguero reviews your history and confirms whether TMS is the right next step for your depression.
Start a TMS protocol built for your case and overseen by your physician throughout.
Frequently Asked Questions
The most common working definition is depression that hasn't responded adequately to two or more antidepressants taken at a proper dose for a proper duration. Your evaluation will establish whether that describes your history.
That's the population TMS was cleared in, adults whose depression didn't respond adequately to antidepressant medication. Many patients who haven't found relief from medication respond to TMS. An evaluation determines whether you're a good candidate.
No. TMS uses magnetic pulses, requires no anesthesia, causes no seizure and no memory loss. You're awake the entire session, and most people drive themselves home afterward.
Insurers commonly cover TMS for depression precisely when medications have been tried without adequate relief, your treatment history is what qualifies you. We'll help you understand your options during your consultation.
Usually not. TMS is frequently done alongside existing medication, and any changes are decisions you make with Dr. Salguero, not a requirement to start.
If you're looking into TMS for treatment-resistant depression in San Diego, you've probably already done the hard part: months or years of medication trials that didn't deliver. TMS was FDA-cleared in exactly that population, adults whose depression didn't respond adequately to antidepressants. It's drug-free, non-invasive, and non-systemic, which means no new side-effect profile layered onto everything you've already been through.
At Brain Strength for Life, the entire course is physician-led. Dr. Mario Salguero, MD, PhD evaluates you, reads your medication history in detail, designs the protocol, and follows your response session by session.
Treatment resistance is a description of your history, not a verdict on your future. Sometimes it points to TMS. Sometimes it points to a diagnosis that needs a second look, or a medication strategy that was never quite right. The only way to know is an evaluation by someone qualified to weigh all three, which is why every patient here starts with Dr. Salguero, not a screening questionnaire.
Patients come to us from across San Diego, La Jolla, Del Mar, and Carmel Valley, usually after being told they'd run out of options. Most of them hadn't.
Two or More Medications Down?
Bring your treatment history. Dr. Salguero will review it, confirm the diagnosis, and tell you honestly whether TMS, a medication change, or a combination is the right move. No pressure, no obligation, just an answer you can act on.