Dr Nick Airey

I have been asked to provide some background information for the website, and while, like many British people, I’m not overly keen on talking about myself, I’ll do my best! I graduated from Bristol Medical School back in 1986, and apart from a year working in Australia, I have mostly worked in the Southwest of England, including North Somerset, Somerset, and Weston-Super-Mare.

My early career was somewhat varied, working as an Anaesthetist for a few years before then training as a General Practitioner. I then moved over to Psychiatry and have since remained in that specialty, with more than 20 years as an NHS consultant. Alongside my NHS duties, I have been visiting psychiatrist at Broadway Lodge, the charitable drug and alcohol residential rehabilitation centre in Weston-Super-Mare, for over 15 years.

As a general adult psychiatrist, I have experience in treating all usual conditions that one encounters in NHS practice, including depression, psychosis, anxiety, OCD, and personality difficulties. Alongside this, I received specialist training in the management of substance misuse and for a number of years was lead doctor for an NHS addiction service.

While working in the NHS, I developed an interest in neuromodulation, and was instrumental in setting up an rTMS clinic and I’m glad to say it has been taken forward by colleagues and is providing treatment to local people, to good effect. Being an NHS treatment centre, the clinicians there need to focus on the treatment of depression, which is the only condition currently approved in this country for rTMS treatment by NICE, the regulatory body. At AIM Neuromodulation, being a private concern, we are able to be more flexible and to treat other conditions, for which rTMS is used to good effect in other countries and also in non-NHS settings in the UK.

With this in mind, we have recently acquired a specialist treatment coil, and I am now treating a number of migraine sufferers. I have a special interest in this condition, not least because I have family members who have great difficulties with this illness. The use of rTMS to treat migraine is not something that is widely practiced in the UK, but is a more standard form of treatment in many northern European countries. The evidence for the treatment using the specialist coil/treatment protocol looks promising, from the European data, and within the next few months we should be able to provide treatment to interested patients.

Another specialist interest being substance misuse treatment, we have used rTMS treatment with a number of inpatients at Broadway Lodge. This is using the craving protocol, and we have been pleased with the results. This treatment is somewhat unique, certainly in the UK. Other clinics are able to provide craving treatment to outpatients, but with our partnership with Broadway Lodge, we are able to combine the treatment with detoxification and residential rehabilitation.

With my consultant colleagues, we are hoping to provide safe and effective treatment to patients. By nature, all three of us are somewhat cautious and therefore keen to not “over promise and under deliver”. Following this principle, we plan to only use rTMS for conditions where there is a good chance of a positive outcome.

Dr Nick Airey

MB ChB MSc MRCGP MRCPsych