Spotlight on SAINT:
SAINT Now Available in New Orleans, One of Only Very Few Sites Worldwide
Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry Brian McGee was persistent. It would end up taking five years from the time he first had his interest piqued about the Stanford Accelerated Intelligent Neuromodulation Therapy (SAINT) while listening to a conference presentation during COVID in 2020, to finding the right champions at LCMC, and making it through two hurricanes before that persistence finally paid off. With support from Psychiatry Department Head Dr. Erich Conrad and LCMC staff, the first patient in Louisiana was successfully treated at the end of June 2025.
“I don’t let things go,” he said with a smile. “It seemed like the chance to make a real impact,” he added more seriously. “I have lived long enough to be skeptical of ‘gamechangers,’ but in this case our results are matching the literature.”
SAINT is an advanced therapy offering new hope for people whose depression has not responded to conventional treatments. When first offered at UMC, only nine sites worldwide offered this cutting-edge procedure and UMC is still the only hospital in the Gulf South able to provide it.
“The addition of SAINT TMS keeps us at the cutting edge of mental health treatment. It is the only treatment available where a patient can come in for their initial visit on Monday severely depressed and walk out Friday symptom free,” Dr. McGee said.
What makes SAINT unique is its accelerated treatment schedule, coupled with vastly improved targeting capability. Unlike traditional Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) therapy, which typically involves 36 daily sessions, SAINT delivers 10 treatment sessions daily for five straight days. This treatment schedule allows for a more concentrated therapeutic effect in a shorter period. Many patients begin to feel relief from depression symptoms by the third day.
Prior to starting treatment, functional MRI imaging of the brain is used to map the precise areas associated with depressive symptoms, enabling clinicians to target treatment with greater accuracy and making each treatment highly personalized. This individualized approach is further enhanced by neuro-navigation technology, which ensures that stimulation is delivered with precision to the intended area. This focused stimulation on individualized brain regions enhances the effectiveness of each session.
“The technology itself has been around for some years now. What is new is the capability to pinpoint the area of the brain we need to target and the accelerated pace of treatment,” he said.
The therapy works by modifying abnormal patterns of brain activity linked to depression. The magnetic pulses help strengthen connections between regions of the brain helping to improve mood regulation, and provide relief from depressive symptoms.
With the addition of the SAINT protocol, UMC now offers the full spectrum of evidence-based treatments for major depressive disorder. Dr. McGee notes that although consultation visits are still open, capacity is currently limited to two patients per week with patients scheduled for treatment six weeks out. Although SAINT is currently a limited resource, the goal is to expand access to this innovative therapy, which has shown the potential to deliver rapid and significant symptom relief, often within just one week.
SAINT is designed to help individuals struggling with severe depression. It may be appropriate for those who have:
- Tried multiple antidepressant medications without significant relief
- Undergone other therapies like traditional TMS or electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) with limited success
- Found temporary relief from depression, only to have symptoms return over time.
The therapy is covered by traditional Medicare and some private insurance companies.
According to the National Institutes of Health, major depression is one of the most common mental disorders in the United States. For some individuals, major depression can result in severe impairments that interfere with or limit one’s ability to carry out major life activities. An estimated 21.0 million adults in the United States had at least one major depressive episode, representing 8.3 percent of all U.S. adults.