Brain Implant Successfully Fights Off Depression, Scientists Say
Researchers seem to have uncovered the trick to successfully using deep-brain stimulation to treat depression — and it hinges on the patient’s mood.
By DAN ROBITZSKI for Futurism & NeoScope Image: Futurism
For years, doctors have been probing the use of targeted electrical shocks to treat clinical depression, and while many experts agree that it’s a promising avenue for treatment, the research has yielded mixed and limited results.
Now, a University of California San Francisco case study published Monday in the journal Nature Medicine shows that electrical stimulation can have a profound antidepressant effect — just so long as the shocks are carefully tailored to an individual patient’s specific moods and symptoms
“I’ve tried literally everything, and for the first few days I was a little worried that this wasn’t going to work,” the volunteer in the case study, a 36-year-old woman with severe depression, said in a press release...
