Irvine patients can complete the Stanford-developed SAINT® accelerated TMS protocol, five days of fMRI-guided treatment, at the BrainHealth Solutions clinic in Costa Mesa, just across the Irvine border by John Wayne Airport. Treatment is led by Dr. Robert Bota, founder of UC Irvine's first TMS program.
SAINT® (Stanford Accelerated Intelligent Neuromodulation Therapy) is an FDA-cleared, accelerated TMS protocol for treatment-resistant depression. Where standard TMS means one session a day for about six weeks, SAINT® gives ten short theta-burst sessions a day over five consecutive days, aimed at a target computed from your own functional MRI. BrainHealth Solutions uses the Magnus Medical Neuromodulation System, the only FDA-cleared system of its kind, and is one of a small number of Southern California practices offering SAINT®. For an Irvine patient, that means a nationally sought-after protocol is available a short drive from home.
A functional MRI measures how your dorsolateral prefrontal cortex connects with the subgenual cingulate, the circuit most closely tied to depression. An algorithm then selects the point where stimulation should have the greatest effect, so your target is personal rather than a standard scalp position.
Treatment uses intermittent theta-burst stimulation: roughly 10 minutes of pulses, repeated ten times a day with about 50 minutes between sessions. That spacing is the reason one SAINT® day can do the work of weeks of conventional TMS.
With the full dose delivered in five days, many patients notice change during the treatment week itself. Dr. Bota's team rescores your symptoms every day so you can follow your own progress.
SAINT® needs a dedicated treatment suite, the Magnus system and a full-day schedule, all housed at BrainHealth Solutions’ only office, 3151 Airway Ave, Bldg R, Costa Mesa, CA 92626. Irvine patients do the screening call, the psychiatric evaluation and all five treatment days there. Because the clinic sits beside John Wayne Airport and borders Irvine, most Irvine patients are about 10 to 20 minutes away, so you can sleep in your own bed every night of the treatment week instead of booking a hotel, as patients from farther away often do.
Leave your name, contact information and a callback time. The team reviews your treatment history, since SAINT® is for depression that has not improved with prior treatment, and walks you through the five-day schedule.
A complete evaluation with Dr. Bota’s team covering diagnoses, medication trials, medical history and TMS safety screening. Insurance review and authorization begin at this visit.
A short fMRI scan is completed before treatment. The Magnus algorithm uses it to compute your individual stimulation target, which is loaded into the neuronavigation system before day one.
Ten theta-burst sessions each day, about 10 minutes apiece, with breaks in between. You stay awake throughout; patients read, work on a laptop or rest in the suite between sessions.
Symptom scales are repeated after the treatment week and at follow-up visits. Your clinician arranges medication management, psychotherapy or maintenance sessions if needed to help the response last.
Each treatment day fills most of the business day because of the spacing between sessions. Plan to be at the clinic from morning until late afternoon for five weekdays; for Irvine patients that usually means taking the week off work or working remotely from the suite between sessions.
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 home to Irvine each evening and resume normal evening activities.
Your care team scores your depression symptoms each day. Many patients report a shift in mood during the week; for others, improvement builds over the following two to four weeks.
The SAINT® schedule is set by the protocol:
SAINT® uses the same magnetic stimulation as standard TMS, and its safety profile is similar. In the published trials, the higher daily dose did not change that profile.
Common and mild
Hearing protection is worn at every session.
Rare
Dr. Bota’s team monitors you on all five days and adjusts intensity if scalp discomfort becomes significant.
In the Stanford randomized trial that supported clearance, about 79% of participants with treatment-resistant depression reached remission with active SAINT®, compared with 13% on sham. Open-label results followed a similar pattern. These are trial figures, not a promise for any one person.
How long the benefit lasts differs from patient to patient. Some stay in remission for months; others need maintenance TMS, medication adjustments or psychotherapy. BrainHealth Solutions sets up that follow-up before your treatment week ends, not after symptoms return.
SAINT® may be the right choice for Irvine adults who:
SAINT® is not appropriate for everyone with depression. Your fMRI, safety screening and treatment history determine eligibility, and the evaluation in Costa Mesa settles that before treatment days are booked.
Alternatives we offer when SAINT® is not the fit
For Irvine patients who have spent years on medications that only partly helped, SAINT® offers speed, precision and a treatment week close to home. 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 are replaced by a single treatment week, a schedule many Irvine professionals can plan around with one week of leave.
The clinic borders Irvine, about 10 to 20 minutes from most neighborhoods, so there is no need to travel or stay away for treatment.
Your target is computed from your own brain connectivity rather than a scalp measurement, using the Magnus Medical system at BrainHealth Solutions.
Many Stanford trial participants improved within days, and daily symptom scoring lets you see change as it happens.
Dr. Bota founded UC Irvine’s first TMS program and has led more than 20 clinical trials; SAINT® sits inside a research-driven practice.
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 for treatment-resistant depression, and its speed matters most when depression is severe and six more weeks of waiting is not acceptable. If you have been told to “give the medication more time” after several failures, a 15-minute screening call is the quickest way to learn whether you qualify.
At the BrainHealth Solutions clinic, SAINT® typically ranges from $10,000 to $20,000 for the course, depending on your individual treatment plan and the number of sessions required. The full course packs about 50 sessions plus a functional MRI into one week. Insurance coverage for the accelerated protocol is growing but varies by plan, and often requires documentation of earlier treatment failures. CareCredit financing can spread self-pay costs over monthly payments. We quote only after reviewing your plan and history.
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 an office in Irvine. SAINT® is delivered at our only clinic, 3151 Airway Ave, Bldg R, Costa Mesa, beside John Wayne Airport on the Irvine border and about 10 to 20 minutes from most of Irvine.
Yes. Most Irvine patients drive in each morning and go home each evening. Because treatment days run from morning to late afternoon, plan to be at the clinic for most of the day for five consecutive weekdays.
Many patients bring a laptop or reading and use the roughly 50-minute breaks between sessions. Most Irvine patients still take the week off from in-person work, since each day is spent at the clinic.
In the Stanford randomized controlled trial, about 79% of participants reached remission versus 13% on sham. Individual results vary, which is why BrainHealth Solutions scores symptoms daily and plans follow-up before treatment ends.
Standard TMS is one session a day for about six weeks, with a target set by scalp measurement. SAINT® is ten theta-burst sessions a day for five days, with a target computed from your fMRI. BrainHealth Solutions offers both.
At BrainHealth Solutions, SAINT® typically ranges from $10,000 to $20,000. Coverage depends on your plan and often requires proof of prior treatment failures. Many plans are accepted, CareCredit is available, and the team reviews your benefits before you commit.
In most cases, yes. Any medication changes are made by your psychiatrist as part of your overall plan, not as a condition of treatment.
Schedule a 15-minute screening call to find out whether SAINT® Depression Therapy is right for you: one treatment week in Costa Mesa, home to Irvine every evening, one clinical team throughout.
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.
