Jupiter, Florida – Dr. Allison Lelania Long, DNP, PMHNP-BC, APRN, is a dedicated and board-certified Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, committed to delivering expert psychiatric care to individuals at Atlas TMS in Jupiter, Florida. Specializing in the treatment of anxiety, depression, mood disorders, and ADHD, Dr. Long is passionate about advocacy and patient empowerment.

Dr. Long employs a holistic approach to develop personalized care plans that address psychiatric needs while considering the physical, cultural, and spiritual dimensions of her patients’ lives. Her practice seamlessly integrates evidence-based treatments with compassionate, patient-centered care. “My goal is to create an environment where patients feel truly understood and supported throughout their mental health journey,” says Dr. Long. “I am dedicated to providing tailored support that reinforces their path to healing.”

Dr. Long’s educational background underscores her commitment to excellence in mental health care. She holds an Associate of Science in Registered Nursing from Palm Beach State College (2013), a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Boise State University (2015), a Master of Science in Nursing from the University of South Alabama (2020), and a Doctor of Psychiatric Nursing Practice (2022).

Outside of her professional work, Dr. Long enjoys traveling, attending sporting events, hiking, and relaxing at the beach, believing that maintaining a balanced life enhances her ability to provide empathetic care to her patients.

Whether beginning a mental health journey or seeking a fresh perspective, patients can trust Dr. Allison Lelania Long to guide them with expertise and empathy.

Learn More about Dr. Allison Lelania Long:

Visit her online profile at Today’s Nurse here https://todaysnurse.org/nurse/4150662
or the Atlas TMS website at https://atlastmsflorida.com/allison-long.

Testimonials from Patients:

“I am so grateful to have found Allison Long! She is incredibly compassionate and genuinely cares about your mental health, helping to determine what works best for YOU. She’s the first person to offer me specialized testing to ensure I’m on the right medications. She is one of the kindest people I know. She listens, she cares, and she is truly one of a kind. Blessed to have found her!”
“Dr. Long is one of a kind as a provider. She is full of accolades, yet remains humble and empathetic in her approach to patient care. While routine visits are not something I typically enjoy in healthcare, the time I spend with Dr. Long is something I genuinely look forward to!”

“I have been working with Dr. Long for several years. She is incredibly knowledgeable, caring, and truly listens. Shortly after beginning treatment with her, I reached a point where my medication was finally effective—a significant milestone after trying numerous medications with various psychiatrists over the years for treatment-resistant depression. Dr. Long has given me my quality of life back, and for that, I am forever grateful.”

The post Empowering Mental Wellness: Meet Dr. Allison Lelania Long, DNP, PMHNP-BC, APRN – Compassionate Psychiatric Care in Jupiter, Florida first appeared on Atlas TMS.

The Lighthouse Health Group is a full service psychiatric clinic providing advanced treatment in a tranquil setting…

To people on the outside looking in, Donna* would appear to have a great life. She has a stable job doing what she loves, a nice home and a new car. She’s blessed with a healthy son, many friends and a close extended family. To any casual observer, she would seem to have everything she needs and wants.

On the inside, however, Donna is tormented by extreme mood swings. She shifts from periods of deep depression and fatigue to periods of heightened energy and agitation. There are times when she is nearly disabled by her condition, which was diagnosed by a psychiatrist as bipolar disorder.

Donna has not responded fully to her current doctor’s treatment plan, and her family has encouraged her to seek another psychiatrist’s opinion. But Donna is hesitant, mainly because she believes psychiatric offices are stark, cold and unfriendly. She dreads the thought of sitting in a sterile environment while being asked a multitude of probing questions. This image in her mind makes her anxious, which makes her feel worse.

“Our clinic is not like that at all,” assures Edward Zawadzki, DO, a board-certified forensic and adult psychiatrist at Lighthouse Health Group in Jupiter. “Ours is a spa-like setting that’s very calming and relaxing. Our office is decorated with bright, soothing colors, so it’s comfortable and welcoming for patients.

“And when we perform our evaluations, we don’t pepper patients with clinical questions, which can be awkward and unpleasant for them. Instead, our evaluations are very conversational, which puts patients at ease and makes them more comfortable with the treatment process. We find patients respond really well to that approach.”

Lighthouse Health Group is still a full-service psychiatric practice offering both traditional and leading-edge treatments for patients with mental health disorders. In addition to a board-certified psychiatrist, the staff includes a certified psychiatric nurse practitioner, doctoral level psychologists and master’s level therapists.

“At our clinic, we spend a good amount of time with our patients, longer than typical psychiatric practices, and we take an individualized approach to each person’s situation,” Dr. Zawadzki describes. “I see patients for an initial evaluation for about an hour, then follow-up visits with me are twenty minutes or longer.

“All of the counselors take time to listen and get to know their patients and what’s going on in their lives, then we use that information in the treatment process. Knowing all about our patients helps us gauge how they’re doing with their treatment and determine if any adjustments are necessary.”

The counselors at Lighthouse Health Group assist people with a broad range of mental health disorders. Many of their patients are diagnosed with depression and anxiety, but they address other conditions as well.

“We treat patients with many issues, including anxiety spectrum disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder,” Dr. Zawadzki observes. “We also treat people with trauma histories as well as major mood disorders such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

“While we use medication to treat many of these conditions, not all patients are treated with medication,” Dr. Zawadzki stresses. “Patients often consult with a therapist or psychologist first, and they can recommend medication. But as the psychiatrist, I decide if patients need medication, psychotherapy or both. Treatment is specific to the individual.”

Totally TMS

Dr. Zawadzki and his staff at Lighthouse Health Group use a mixture of science-based psychiatry and traditional psychotherapeutic methods to treat their patients. Traditional methods they employ include individual and family therapy. The staff also use leading-edge techniques such as transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS.

“During TMS, a high-strength magnet is placed on the head over an area of the brain called the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex,” Dr. Zawadzki describes. “This area of the brain is considered important in the development of depression. It has been shown on MRI studies to be under-functioning in people who have depression.

“Pulsing the magnet over that section of the brain induces a small electrical charge that forces the neurons in that area to fire. This essentially wakes up the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex so it functions normally again, which relieves depression symptoms.”

A course of TMS therapy is generally 36 sessions over approximately one month. The initial TMS session lasts 45 minutes to an hour. During that time, Dr. Zawadzki maps the brain to determine the exact location for magnet placement. Subsequent sessions take about 30 minutes to complete.

“TMS is typically reserved for patients who struggle with medications, who’ve had only partial response to medications or can’t take medications due to side effects or another issue,” Dr. Zawadzki reports. “The nice thing about TMS is it bypasses the pill-taking process and focuses treatment directly on the area of the brain that we believe is involved in depression.

“Most patients start feeling better around the two-week mark after beginning TMS therapy. But for some patients, it takes a little longer to feel significant relief of their symptoms.”

Rapid Relief

Another leading-edge treatment offered at Lighthouse Health Group is esketamine, which is a new medication that helps people suffering from depressive disorders rapidly achieve symptom relief.

“Esketamine is an analog of ketamine, an anesthetic that’s been around for many years,” Dr. Zawadzki explains. “But esketamine has been reformulated as a treatment for depression. We use esketamine as a nasal spray, and we administer it in our office. It’s not something patients take home with them.

“Esketamine is an NMDA-receptor antagonist, which is a complicated way of saying it works on neurotransmitters in the brain that are involved with depression and other emotional states. By modulating those neurotransmitters with esketamine, we can help people feel dramatically better very quickly.

“The exact way esketamine works is complicated. But essentially, it operates through a variety of mechanisms primarily concerned with glutamate transmission. [Glutamate is a specific neurotransmitter]. With esketamine, patients enter a dissociative anesthetic state, during which symptoms of depression go away.”

Initially, esketamine is administered twice a week for one month, after which patients enter a maintenance phase. During maintenance, patients are treated once per week for a specific number of months determined by how each patient responds to the treatment.

Like TMS, esketamine therapy is typically considered after patients fail to achieve significant symptom relief using medications.

Patients with mental health disorders sometimes suffer physical pain as well. Lighthouse Health Group offers a service to support patients in that situation. To ease patients’ pain, a board-certified physiatrist is on site at the clinic to address their painful conditions.

“We’re not a pain clinic, but our physiatrist treats patients for many types of musculoskeletal complaints, including back pain and joint injuries,” Dr. Zawadzki states. “As a physiatrist, she can address any type of muscle or bone issue patients may experience.”

People don’t have to be mental health patients to make an appointment with the physiatrist at Lighthouse Health Group.

Hearing about Lighthouse Health Group was excellent news to Donna’s ears. She was thrilled to learn of a psychiatric clinic with a soothing atmosphere and concierge-like service. It took away the anxiety of seeking a second opinion on her bipolar disorder treatment plan. Donna was surprised to find out that Lighthouse Health Group is not brand-new.

“We’ve been around for close to five years,” Dr. Zawadzki shares. “And our patients are our priority. Our ultimate goal is to provide really good care to our patients at all times.”

FHCN – Patti DiPanfilo

*The patient’s name was changed at her request.

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Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a noninvasive technique that delivers high-intensity electromagnetic pulses through a coil. “The fast passage of electric current in the coil induces a transient, high-intensity magnetic field that penetrates unimpeded through the scalp and reaches the underlying cortex,” the author explained in a review published online in Psychiatry Research in September 2017.³ “In the targeted cortex, this field can generate an electric current which can induce depolarization of superficial cortical neurons and interconnected areas beneath the coil.”⁴

There are various types of TMS, including single-pulse TMS, which delivers one pulse at a time, and repetitive TMS (rTMS), in which repeated pulses are administered to the same area. The safety of rTMS is supported by findings of multiple studies, and although various meta-analyses have reported the efficacy of this technique for treatment-resistant depression, the studies were based on acute rTMS rather than rTMS as maintenance treatment.

The new review explored studies that investigated the efficacy and safety of maintenance rTMS following successful acute treatment with rTMS or ECT in treatment-resistant unipolar or bipolar depression. Additionally, these studies were compared with those comparing maintenance rTMS with observation only after acute rTMS.

The author found a limited number of studies (n=19) on the topic, and most of these were case series. Selected findings from the review are summarized briefly below.

• In a 45-year-old woman who had not had an adequate response to various antidepressants for recurrent MDD, an initial response to 10 sessions of rTMS was followed by relapse 2 weeks after treatment ended. After subsequent weekly or biweekly sessions of maintenance rTMS, she remained episode free for 4 months, and no adverse effects were reported.⁵
• Following successful response to acute rTMS, 3 of 7 patients with bipolar depression maintained partial remission after 1 year of weekly maintenance sessions.⁶
• A 60-year-old woman with drug-resistant bipolar I depression maintained a therapeutic response to an acute course of rTMS followed by 6 months of maintenance rTMS sessions every other week.⁷
• In a naturalistic study, 205 patients with treatment-resistant MDD had a significant decrease in symptoms after successful acute rTMS followed by a 12-month course of maintenance rTMS.⁸
• In a 3-armed open label-study, no significant differences were observed between patients assigned to 1 of 3 conditions: venlafaxine (n=22); maintenance rTMS for 12 months (n=25; twice weekly for the first month, followed by once weekly for 2 months, and once every 2 weeks for the remaining 9 months); or a combination of both treatments (n=19).⁹
• A randomized, multicenter trial with 49 participants found no significant difference in 12-month outcomes between participants who underwent monthly maintenance rTMS and those assigned to observation only, after both groups previously responded to 6 weeks of treatment with 5 weekly sessions of rTMS.¹⁰

There were few adverse effects across studies, including slight headache in one patient and a transient increase in suicidality in another patient. Overall, most studies showed at least moderate benefits, including remission, in the majority of patients after rTMS.

As an alternative to continuing antidepressant medications, maintenance rTMS “can be helpful in preventing depressive relapses, and should be considered a useful therapeutic approach for treatment-resistant depression after successful response to an acute course of rTMS or ECT,” according to the review author, Fady Rachid, MD, a psychiatrist and psychotherapist in private practice in Geneva, Switzerland. However, there are no established protocols for maintenance rTMS. Although the intervention should ultimately be tailored to each patient’s clinical picture, it might consist of an rTMS taper of 4 times weekly for the first week, 3 times weekly in the following week, 2 times weekly for the subsequent 1 or 2 weeks, and then 1 session every 2 or 3 weeks over several months to years, depending on the case.

Future research in the realm of rTMS should include studies with improved design, as well as “more controlled studies with more subjects comparing active maintenance rTMS with a placebo or medications… in order to assess the true efficacy and safety of this technique in the long term,” said Dr Rachid. “That said, there is definitely a place for maintenance rTMS in the management of treatment-resistant depression.”

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Julia Imperatore, a research specialist, had marked the swim cap so she could tailor the stimulation for Skidmore each of the 13 times he came to the Medical University of South Carolina. He agreed to take part in a clinical trial that aims to prove that this technology, called “transcranial magnetic stimulation” or “TMS,” can relieve ongoing pain.

TMS is already used to treat depression and migraines. Studies also have shown it can be helpful in reducing chronic pain, but so far those studies have not been sufficient to win approval from the Food and Drug Administration. The research comes at a time when specialists search for answers to an epidemic of painkiller addiction sweeping the country.

Skidmore said at least for him, TMS seems to have worked. He said he agreed to participate in the trial because he has been “searching for something that’s going to give me my life back, so my days aren’t consumed with pain.” He said if TMS is approved for chronic pain, he would definitely seek it out.

The side effects of TMS, which was developed in Charleston, are minimal and often include headaches. Dr. Colleen Hanlon, who is leading the research at MUSC, said the underlying problem is that there are very few options available to treat chronic pain that are as powerful as opioids.

“We’re trying to give another tool to use to treat chronic pain,” Hanlon said.

MUSC is recruiting all adults younger than 65 who rely on an opioid painkiller prescription for the clinical trial.

Traditional opioid painkillers work by binding to opiate receptors in the brain. TMS can achieve the same thing, Hanlon said, by mimicking that effect. Magnetic fields deliver a pulse to the brain, which Skidmore said feels strange but is not particularly painful.

A key difference between opioids and TMS: In order for opioids to continue to be effective, a patient needs more and more. That does not appear to be the case with TMS, Hanlon said. People don’t develop a tolerance to it.

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Research is ongoing into whether transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS, can help people with autism, schizophrenia and a host of other conditions involving the brain.

For now, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved TMS for use in adults with depression who haven’t been helped by medication.

Dr. Chad T. Brown, a pediatric and adult psychiatrist, began offering the treatment this year at his Medford practice, Path to Awareness. He estimates about 50 to 60 percent of patients who’ve tried TMI at his office have seen improvements in their depression symptoms.

“For the people who get better, it’s pretty dramatic,” Brown says.

Many patients have suffered from debilitating depression for years, he notes.

Following TMS treatment, one patient picked up an instrument after not playing for nine years, Brown says. Another was able to go to work after being too depressed to even apply for a job. A patient who had been having suicidal thoughts for years no longer feels suicidal, Brown says.

“One person described it being as if a fog was lifting,” he says.

The results so far in Medford mirror studies that found 53 percent of patients with medication-resistant depression who were treated with TMS reported no or mild depression following six weeks of treatment, according to results announced in 2014 at an American Psychiatric Association meeting.

The TMS patients achieved better results than depressed patients who tried a different medication after failing to improve from past medication. Among patients trying new medication, 38 percent saw improvements, according to study results.

Brown says TMS doesn’t work for everyone.

“For some people, when it doesn’t work it can be really disappointing for them — and that’s tough to see. It’s tough to work with that person and see them not get better,” he says.

Those aided by TMS often need help adjusting to a more active life, he notes.

“Anxiety can go up. When you’re depressed, anxiety can be low if you’re not doing anything,” Brown says.

When depression lifts, patients and those around them often develop higher expectations about what the patient should be capable of doing.

“They’re trying to do things they haven’t done in years. That can provoke anxiety. It’s important to work with a therapist. Things will come up,” Brown says.

The treatment is time-intensive, but research shows it can provide long-lasting improvements.

Patients come to the Medford practice five times per week for sessions that last 20 to 50 minutes. The treatment goes on for six to eight weeks.

A TMS technician attaches the device to the side of a person’s head. Patients feel a tapping sensation and hear a clicking noise. Side effects can include a headache and tenderness on the scalp.

As for the science of TMS, the pulses target the dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex on the left side of the brain when used for depression. The pulsating magnetic fields create electric currents in the brain’s nerve cells.

“The more often a neural circuit is fired, the stronger it gets. By activating that side of the brain, we’re strengthening the connections that are important in mood regulation,” Brown says.

The pulses are thought to increase blood flow and encourage the growth of connections between brain cells. TMS can also cause the release of the neurotransmitters dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine — chemicals that help send signals between cells, according to researchers.

Dopamine helps control the brain’s reward and pleasure centers, while serotonin influences brain cells related to mood, sleep, memory, learning and other functions. Low levels of norepinephrine are linked to conditions that include depression and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, according to scientists.

Although the FDA has approved TMS only for medication-resistant depression, the treatment has been approved in Europe for bipolar disorder, post traumatic stress disorder, chronic pain, obsessive compulsive disorder and adult ADHD, according to transcranialmagneticstimulation.com.

The website offers information about TMS and American medical providers who offer the treatment.

According to the website, depression affects approximately 1 in 10 Americans and is a leading cause of disability. Depression can last for months or years, with serious depression usually caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain.

Depending on the speed at which magnetic pulses are delivered to the brain, TMS can either increase or decrease activity in targeted areas.

Researchers have reported mixed results for using TMS to treat schizophrenia, a severe, chronic mental illness that can cause hallucinations, delusions and other symptoms. Medication doesn’t work for everyone with the disease, and can trigger side effects such as apathy, weight gain and shaking that cause people to stop taking their prescriptions.

TMS appears to be most promising in treating auditory hallucinations, in which people with schizophrenia hear sounds — including voices — that aren’t there, according to the journal Innovations in Clinical Neuroscience.

Imaging studies suggest the voices arise from parts of the brain involved in perceiving spoken speech. Researchers theorize low-speed magnetic pulses could reduce activity in brain areas that appear to be generating the voices.

In one study, 53 percent of schizophrenic patients had their voice hallucinations reduced by at least half. The improvement lasted from one week to over a year, with about half of patients seeing significant improvement for at least three months following the trial, according to Yale-New Haven Psychiatric Hospital researchers.

The researchers noted voice hallucinations can be very distressing to patients, interrupting their ability to work, study, sleep and interact with others. Negative, commanding voices can lead to suicide in extreme cases.

Research on TMS treatment for autism is still in its infancy.

Small-scale clinical studies suggest the treatment could reduce repetitive behaviors and improve social skills, among other benefits. But more research and larger studies are needed, according to neuroscientist and autism researcher Lindsay Oberman.

TMS successfully reduced symptoms of tinnitus in more than half of patients with the auditory and neurological condition. People with tinnitus hear a persistent ringing, buzzing, hissing or humming noise when there is no external sound source, according to Oregon Health & Science University and Veterans Affairs Portland Medical Center researchers who reported their results in 2015.

Tinnitus affects nearly 45 million Americans, including veterans with combat-related hearing damage. Tinnitus is the most prevalent service-connected disability in the VA system, according to OHSU.

When people have hearing loss in their ears and can no longer hear sounds at certain frequencies, the brain may produce an experience of sound to make up for the loss of external stimuli in those frequencies. The brain essentially fills in the missing sounds, according to the American Tinnitus Association.

While tinnitus is usually associated with hearing loss, symptoms can be triggered by about 200 health issues, including congestion from colds and autoimmune disorders, the association notes.

Although the FDA has approved TMS only for medication-resistant depression for now, Brown says people with other conditions could eventually be helped by the innovative treatment.

“There are ongoing studies. Not everything will pan out, but it’s promising,” he says.

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