For Newport Beach adults with treatment-resistant depression who cannot set aside six weeks for daily TMS, BrainHealth Solutions delivers the five-day SAINT® protocol at its Costa Mesa clinic beside John Wayne Airport, under the care of psychiatrist Dr. Robert Bota.
SAINT® (Stanford Accelerated Intelligent Neuromodulation Therapy) is an FDA-cleared, accelerated form of TMS for treatment-resistant depression. It compresses treatment into five consecutive days: ten short theta-burst sessions a day, aimed at a target computed from your own functional MRI. BrainHealth Solutions delivers it with the Magnus Medical Neuromodulation System and is one of a small number of Southern California practices offering the protocol. For a Newport Beach professional or business owner, the practical difference is simple: one planned week replaces about thirty separate appointments.
A functional MRI maps the connection between your dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the subgenual cingulate, a circuit strongly implicated in depression. An algorithm selects the point where stimulation is expected to work best, so the target is specific to your brain.
Each session is about 10 minutes of intermittent theta-burst stimulation, repeated ten times a day with roughly 50-minute breaks. That spacing is deliberate: it is what allows one day of SAINT® to deliver the work of weeks of conventional TMS.
Because the full dose is given in five days, many patients notice change during the treatment week itself. Dr. Bota's team scores your symptoms every day, so you see the trajectory as it develops.
SAINT® needs a dedicated treatment suite, the Magnus system and a full-day schedule, so BrainHealth Solutions delivers it at its only clinic, 3151 Airway Ave, Bldg R, Costa Mesa, CA 92626, on Airway Ave beside John Wayne Airport. There is no Newport Beach office, but for most Newport Beach patients the clinic is about 10 to 20 minutes away, which means you sleep in your own home every night of the treatment week instead of booking a hotel. The screening call, psychiatric evaluation, fMRI planning and all five treatment days happen at the same address.
Share your name, contact information and a callback time. The team reviews your treatment history, since SAINT® is for depression that has not improved after prior treatment, and walks you through the five-day schedule.
A full evaluation covering diagnoses, medication trials, medical history and TMS safety screening. Insurance review and any authorization begin at this visit.
You complete a short fMRI scan. The Magnus algorithm uses it to compute your individual stimulation target, which is loaded into the neuronavigation system before your first treatment day.
Ten theta-burst sessions a day, each about 10 minutes, with breaks between. You are awake throughout; patients read, rest or handle light work between sessions.
Symptom scales are repeated after the treatment week and at follow-up visits. If needed, your psychiatrist plans medication management, psychotherapy or maintenance sessions so the response holds.
Each treatment day runs most of the business day because of the spacing between sessions, so plan the week the way you would plan a short leave from work: five weekdays at the clinic, with evenings at home in Newport Beach.
The stimulation feels like a brisk tapping on the scalp for about 10 minutes at a time. There is no sedation, so you can drive yourself each morning and evening, and many patients bring a laptop or a book for the breaks.
Your care team scores depression symptoms daily. Many patients report a change in mood within the week; others improve over the following two to four weeks as the effect consolidates.
The SAINT® schedule is fixed by the protocol:
SAINT® uses the same magnetic stimulation as standard TMS, and its safety profile in published trials is similar despite the higher daily dose.
Common and mild
Hearing protection is used in every session.
Rare
Dr. Bota’s team monitors you across all five days and adjusts intensity if scalp discomfort becomes significant.
In the Stanford randomized trial that led to clearance, about 79% of participants with treatment-resistant depression reached remission with active SAINT®, compared with 13% on sham. These are trial results, not a promise for any individual patient.
How long the benefit lasts varies. Some patients hold remission for months; others need maintenance TMS, a medication adjustment or psychotherapy. BrainHealth Solutions sets that follow-up plan during the treatment week, not after symptoms return.
SAINT® may suit Newport Beach adults who:
SAINT® is not appropriate for everyone with depression. Your treatment history, the safety screening and the fMRI all determine eligibility, and the evaluation settles that before any treatment days are booked.
Alternatives we offer when SAINT is not the fit
People who have spent years on medications that only partly helped tend to value two things about SAINT®: speed, and a schedule they can plan around. One family wrote that Dr. Bota “took time to listen, answer questions, and personalize treatment, and the TMS protocol was highly effective.”
About 30 daily visits become a single planned treatment week, which is easier to arrange around work, travel and family commitments.
With the clinic about 10 to 20 minutes from most of Newport Beach, there is no need to stay away from home during the treatment week.
Your target is computed from your own brain connectivity, not a scalp measurement, using the Magnus Medical system.
Many participants in the Stanford trials improved within days, and daily symptom scoring lets you see the change as it happens.
You drive yourself each day and take no new medication, so there is nothing to taper afterward.
If depression returns, you are already a patient of a team that offers standard TMS, Spravato®, medication management and psychotherapy.
SAINT® was designed and tested specifically for treatment-resistant depression, and its speed matters when depression is severe and another six weeks of waiting is not acceptable. If you have been told to “give the medication more time” after several failed trials, a screening call is the quickest way to learn whether you qualify.
At our Costa Mesa clinic, the full SAINT® course typically ranges from $10,000 to $20,000, depending on your individual treatment plan and the number of sessions required. Many insurance plans, including Medicare, can cover SAINT® for qualifying patients, but coverage is plan-specific and often requires documentation of prior treatment failures. CareCredit financing is available, and we confirm what your plan covers before you commit.
Insurance and financing
BrainHealth Solutions accepts insurance and self-pay. Many major plans are accepted, including Medicare and Anthem, and CareCredit financing spreads self-pay costs over monthly payments. Submit your plan through the insurance-check form on our site, or ask on your 15-minute screening call, and our team confirms what your plan covers before you commit to anything.
Dr. Robert Bota, MD, MSG, DFAPA is a board-certified psychiatrist and Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. He trained in TMS at Harvard University and the University of South Carolina, founded and directed the first TMS program at UC Irvine, and has authored more than 60 peer-reviewed publications.
Dr. Bota has been principal investigator on more than 20 clinical trials in depression, schizophrenia, PTSD and Alzheimer’s disease, and the practice participates in brain-imaging research with Kernel neurotechnology. Treatment plans are informed by that research and reviewed as your symptoms change.
Care at BrainHealth Solutions is delivered by a team that includes psychiatrists Dr. Tina Allee and Dr. Mahtab K. Yousefi (child and adolescent care in English and Farsi), Spravato® specialist Dr. Dragos Serseni, TMS technician Anna Venezio and office manager Peter Bota.
Many plans are accepted, including Medicare and Anthem, and CareCredit financing is available for self-pay. One parent wrote that the team “even helped get insurance coverage when others said it wasn’t possible.” Use the insurance check on our site or ask on your screening call.
BrainHealth Solutions does not have a Newport Beach office. SAINT® is delivered at our clinic at 3151 Airway Ave, Bldg R, Costa Mesa, beside John Wayne Airport, about 10 to 20 minutes from most of Newport Beach, where the Magnus system and treatment suite are located.
Most Newport Beach patients do not. Treatment runs most of the day for five consecutive weekdays, and because the clinic is close, you can drive in each morning and sleep at home each night.
Treat it like a short leave: the treatment days fill most of the business day, Monday to Friday. Some patients handle light work between sessions. The team gives you the full schedule in advance so you can plan around it.
It is an FDA-cleared accelerated TMS protocol developed at Stanford: ten theta-burst sessions a day for five consecutive days, aimed at a target computed from your functional MRI. In the Stanford randomized trial, about 79% of participants reached remission versus 13% on sham.
The advantages are speed, fMRI-guided targeting and a one-week schedule. The trade-offs are that each treatment day is long, the fMRI is an extra step, and not everyone qualifies. BrainHealth Solutions offers both, so the screening call helps decide which fits.
SAINT® is cleared for treatment-resistant major depression. Because stimulation can trigger mania or hypomania in some people with bipolar disorder, your psychiatrist screens for it at evaluation and decides whether, and how, TMS can be used safely.
In most cases, yes. Any medication changes are made by your psychiatrist as part of the overall plan, not as a condition of treatment.
Schedule a 15-minute screening call to find out whether five days of SAINT®, close to home, is the right next step for your depression.
BrainHealth Solutions, 3151 Airway Ave, Bldg R, Costa Mesa, CA 92626 · (949) 441-5542 · Monday to Friday, 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM. Same-day appointments may be available. The screening call asks only for your name, contact information and a callback time; there are no long intake forms before you speak with us.
