Stimulation Device Offers Relief from Hard-to-Treat Depression
Although great strides have been made in treating depression, those who suffer from treatment-resistant depression have continued to present a serious challenge to doctors seeking a way to help them. Researchers at Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston recently broke new ground by using a revolutionary technique that holds promise for the severely depressed: bilateral epidural prefrontal cortical stimulation, a neurosurgical treatment.
The procedure is a form of brain surgery. It consists of implanting four paddles that deliver chronic and intermittent electrical stimulation to the surface of the part of the brain governing mood and socialization. The device that's inserted is similar to a pacemaker and has already been used to stimulate the spine as a means of combating pain.
"We're focusing on a very small but fairly disabled group of depressed patients," explained Dr. Ziad Nahas, who spearheaded the study and recently published the results in the journal Biological Psychiatry. Dr. Nahas has been studying brain stimulation and the pathophysiology of depression using brain imaging for over a decade.
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