Scientists test brain pacemakers for depression

May 26, 2008 By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer

Graphic explains how depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder are treated with electrodes in the brain

(AP) -- It's a new frontier for psychiatric illness: Brain pacemakers that promise to act as antidepressants by changing how patients' nerve circuitry fires. Scientists already know the power of these devices to block the tremors of Parkinson's disease and related illnesses; more than 40,000 such patients worldwide have the implants.

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• zevkirsh - May 27, 2008
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  david peirce talks about the potential for this technology to be used on people to make them in a permanently ecstatic state on his hedweb site. honestly...i'd get a dbs implant even though i dont need one just to see what it was like ( if it were safe and free , which it aint!)
  but man....who wouldn't want a button to change their brain at a given moment.
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• earls - May 27, 2008
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  Agreed, I dunno about the whole implant thing though.
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• KB6 - May 27, 2008
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  The problem is that such control over the brain would have to be in tune with the needs of the body. If we could just "dial in" whatever state of mind we want our bodies might begin to protest. It could screw with things like melatonin release and circadian rhythms, diet, etc. It's like when an addict's body goes to crap, partly as a result of too little food, too little sleep, just plain neglect.
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• westonprice - May 29, 2008
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  I'm happy, can't you tell? Oh wait I forgot to push the button...
  But seriously I'm glad the lady does not feel like a zombie anymore, that is a terrible way to exist.
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