Depression: Electrical stimulation can 'significantly' improve mood
New research shows that deep brain stimulation can tackle treatment-resistant depression. Stimulating a brain area called the orbitofrontal cortex led to "significant" improvements in mood for people with moderate to severe depression.
Major depressive disorder affects over 16 million adults per year in the United States and is the "leading cause of disability worldwide."
A significant proportion of people who are living with major depression do not get any relief from existing treatments.
In fact, up to 30 percent of those affected by depression have an intractable form of the condition.
Recently, deep brain stimulation (DBS) has emerged as a potential therapy that may succeed where other treatments have failed.
In DBS, specialists surgically implant stimulating electrodes in the brain to send electrical currents to targeted areas.
In the new study, Dr. Eddie Chang and his colleagues used DBS in 25 people who had symptoms of depression. They report their findings in the journal Current Biology.
Dr. Chang is also a professor of neurosurgery at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF).
