Pacemaker for the Brain Can Relieve Severe Depression

The device must be personalized according to the patient’s condition.

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA — Sarah is the first depression patient documented to receive deep brain stimulation. The results of the examination provide a promising guarantee.

Over the years, severe depression led Sarah to consider ending her life. He had tried 20 different drugs, spent months in hospital, received electric shocks to his brain, until his nerves were stimulated by magnetic fields. However, the symptoms of depression remained.

“I was at the end of the line,” said the 38 -year -old from Northern California.

Five years ago, Sarah’s depression had become so severe that it was no longer safe for her to live alone. He moved back with his parents and quit his job.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), depression affects 300 million people worldwide. Many people who have suicidal ideation recover with the right support and care. However, Sarah, who did not want her last name published, was among the 20-30 percent of people who did not get help from standard care.

“I can’t see myself moving on if this is all I can do, if I can never move beyond this. It’s not a life worth living,” he said.

Instant medicine?

Then, in June 2020, he became the first patient in an experimental study. A team of scientists at the University of California San Francisco implanted a cigarette case-sized device in his skull.

This device detects Sarah’s impending depression symptoms and reacts by sending electrical impulses to her brain to relieve them immediately, such as pacemaker for the brain. The device changed the way Sarah saw the world.

“I just remember coming home the first time the device turned on. I remember: ‘Oh my God, like, the difference in color – it’s beautiful, the light,’ she told CNN.

After 12 days of fitting the device, Sarah’s score on the depression scale dropped from 36 out of 54 on the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale to 14, according to the MIT Technology Review. A few months later, dropping to below 10, the rating indicated he was in remission, according to the researchers.

“This technique is outstanding as a scientific engineering endeavor. It shows potential with what we have learned from neuroscience,” Helen Mayberg, a neurologist and director of the Center for Advanced Circuit Therapeutics at the Icahn School of Medicine in New York City, told DW.

sumber : DW

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