Deep Brain Stimulation: New Treatment for Depression

Researchers at the University of Bonn may have found a new treatment for depression patients. The study was conducted on two men and one woman, who have all had severe depression for years. These patients had never responded to existing depression therapies or depression medication. This new treatment, however, was able to improve their condition in only a few days.

The procedure is called Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS). DBS involves inserting electrodes into portions of the brain and sending an electric current through them to stimulate that brain area. While this method has been used widely for the treatment of Parkinson's Disease, not much research has been done on its effects on depression.

Along with two other brain regions, a region called the nucleus accumbens was stimulated using this technique. This area of the brain is involved in remembering good experiences so that we are excited about enjoying these experiences again in the future. This is known as the "reward system". When this area was stimulated, the depression patients immediately spoke of enjoyable actions they would like to participate in. The woman indicated that she would like to go bowling again, sometime soon. However, despite these initial responses, their overall moods did not improve immediately. It took a few days to produce an observable change in the levels of their depression.

A benefit of this type of therapy would be that there are no observable, long-term side effects from the treatment. Other treatments, such as medication, have many harmful side effects such as weight gain, nausea, and anxiety. These medications interfere with the biochemistry of the brain, while Deep Brain Stimulation acts locally on only the specified area. The only side effect observed during the duration of the treatment was that the depression patients complained of pain where the electrodes had been inserted. The electrodes and voltage generator could potentially be implanted into the body, like a pacemaker, as it has been done to treat Parkinson's.

This study was only done on three patients, and out of those three, only two of them showed signs of improvement. While Deep Brain Stimulation may potentially be a great treatment for depression, it is necessary to perform much more testing before it will ever become a widespread treatment.

This gives hope to depression patients who were thought to be resistant to all therapies and drugs.