Yahoo! News: Implanted Electrodes Combat Depression
A procedure that involves drilling two holes into a person’s skull and then implanting electrodes in the brain has shown promise in treating individuals who are severely depressed and resistant to other types of treatment.Four of six patients who received this deep brain stimulation showed sustained improvement six months after the procedure took place, scientists report in the March 3 issue of Neuron.
The patients have now been followed for a year and are still in remission.
Patients with “treatment-resistant depression” endure a type of mental suffering that is difficult for others to comprehend. Patients in this study were incapacitated by their symptoms. We aren’t told what treatments failed, or what else was going on in their lives.
Electrodes were implanted in the subgenual cingulate region of the limbic system, which seems to play a role in depression.
“It’s one spot of the brain that is really acting as a terrorist and subjugating very widespread areas of the brain and interfering with their function,” Lozano said. “If one can seek out this area and tell it to behave in a more normal fashion, then the rest of the brain follows.” The four people also showed improvements in concentration and motivation, he said.Lozano stressed that this research was “early, early” and that additional studies needed to be performed. “We don’t know if this will be reproducible and sustained,” he said. Researchers also don’t know if the results can be generalized to all depression.
“It’s only six people, so it’s nothing to be too excited about, yet these patients really are the most refractory, and many of them had not been out of the house for several years,” Lozano said. “Now they’re talking about going to work, going to the gym, starting a business. It’s really been a transformative experience for some of them.”
