Deep Brain Stimulation Cures Severe Depression: Study

A latest Canadian study suggests that people with severe depressiondefine can be treated effectively with deep brain stimulation (DBS), in which electrical impulses are delivered through electrodes implanted in the section of the brain, called the subcallosal cingulate gyrus (SCG).

Lead author of the study, Dr. Andres Lozano, a neurosurgeon at Toronto Western Hospital and team found that DBS lifted up the moods of the people, showed marked improvement in their sleep pattern and the ability to put thoughts into action. Their appetite also returned while their anxiety levels decreased.

Dr. Andres Lazano, said in a news release, "Our research confirmed that 60 percent of patients have shown a clinically significant response to the surgery and the benefits were sustained for at least one year."

The team of researchers conducted the study on 20 patients with major depressant disorder (a form of severe depressiondefine) and revealed that deep brain stimulation offer relieve from symptoms of depression in 60% of their patients.

A month after the deep brain stimulation, 35 of patients responded well to the therapy showing less depressive symptoms, with 10 percent of them entering remission. The patients even reduced their medication as their symptoms reduced.

After six months of deep brain stimulation, 60% of patients showed less symptoms of depression while 35% were in remission.

Lozano and team said that the whole procedure, which is reversible, is quite safe with only few serious side effects and no patients suffered long term harm from the procedure.

After the surgery, one had a seizure, 4 patients developed wound infections, four cases of headache and pain were reported.

Lozano said, "The procedure is well tolerated and no patient suffered a permanent serious adverse effect."

"In contrast to previously utilized ablative neurosurgical procedures for depression, DBS is adjustable and stimulation is reversible.

"These features increase safety and may offer advantages for both the efficacy of the therapy and its acceptance in the patient, medical, and psychiatric community, " he said.

Nearly 120 million people around the world suffer from severe depression. Deep brain stimulation is administered on the ten to 20% who are ‘unresponsive to other treatments’ such as psychotherapy, medication and shock therapy. They are the severe cases and about 15% kill themselves, the researcher said.

Studies show that some people are born with the Major Depressant Disorder while some others develop it later in life.

In 2005, Lozano and his team first reported that deep brain stimulation may help depression patients after studying 6 patients and the latest study reports the outcomes for another 14 patients for a total of 20 patients followed for one year.

The results appear in the journal Biological Psychiatry.

The technique called the Deep Brain Stimulation or DBS has already shown that it can help in warding off tremors of Parkinson's disease and dystonia. DBS stimulates the neural circuits which control mood and anxiety and over 40,000 patients around the world have the implants.

Two months ago, two largest and longest studies were conducted by researchers at the Cleveland Clinic, Brown University and Belgium's University of Leuven which found that a small device, implanted in the chest known as "brain pacemaker” can potentially treat Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and depression.