New therapy gives hope for very severe depression

November 2, 2009
New therapy gives hope for very severe depression

Enlarge

The doctors implanted electrodes in the nucleus accumbens of their patients. They were thus able to stimulate this important part of the reward system. As a result, the depressive symptoms in half of the patients improved significantly.

Thanks to a new method there is a reason for hope for patients with very severe depression. German physicians at the University Clinics of Bonn and Cologne have treated ten patients with deep brain stimulation. This involved implanting electrodes in the patients' nucleus accumbens. This centre has a key role in as the brains reward system, whose function may be impaired in depressive people. Subsequent to this treatment, the patients' depression improved significantly in half of the patients. All patients had suffered from very severe depression for many years and did not respond to any other therapies. The results of the study will be published in the journal Biological Psychiatry.

In , doctors specifically target the impaired function of certain areas of the brain with an electric brain pacemaker. For the purpose of this study, they implanted electrodes in what is known as the nucleus accumbens. That is an important part of the 'reward system' which ensures that we remember good experiences and puts us in a state of pleasant anticipation. Without a we would not forge any plans for the future as we would not be able to enjoy the fruits of these plans. Inactivity and the inability to experience pleasure are two important signs of depression.

A total of ten patients with very participated in the study. In all patients, symptoms did not improve despite many therapies using psychotherapy or pharmacotherapy. Overall, all participants showed signy of improvement, in half of them symptoms of depression improved significantly. Initial effects could sometimes be seen just after a few days. 'Thus, inter alia we observed increasing activity of the patients,' Professor Thomas E. Schlaepfer from the Bonn Clinic of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy explains. 'This was so successful that some of them were even able to work again, after having been incapacitated for many years. None of our patients had ever responded to any other therapy to a comparable extent before.'

Hardly any side effects

Five patients' well-being improved considerably and in a sustained fashion. Even after a year, the stimulation of the nucleus accumbens still had the same efficacy as at the beginning of the study. During the study, the scientists also observed distinct anxiety-relieving effects which had not been observed in studies on deep brain stimulation to date. 'Severe anxiety is often an accompanying effect of depression,' the primary author of the study Dr. Bettina Bevernick explains. The overall brain function of the participants was not impaired by the treatment, some neurophysiological functions even improved. Overall, the scientists only noticed minor side effects, e.g. as a consequence of the operation or after changing the electrical parameters of stimulation. However, these effects always wore off after short periods of time.

Stimulation changes the brain metabolism

But what is the exact effect of the stimulation of the nucleus accumbens? 'We were able to show using functional brain imaging methods that the stimulation changes metabolic rates of different areas of the brain,' Thomas Schlaepfer says. 'What is very important is that the metabolic changes do not just affect the nucleus accumbens itself but also other regions of the limbic system, where the brain processes emotions and that are known to be dysfunctional in depression.

Due to the small number of patients in this and similar studies, the scientists warn against exaggerated hopes. Moreover, with brain surgery in psychiatric patients specific ethical issues have to be considered very carefully, not least because such an operation is always associated with risk. 'However, our study definitely shows that deep brain stimulation can help some patients with extremely severe forms of ,' Thomas Schlaepfer stresses. 'That even goes for cases which were thought to be absolutely therapy-resistant up to now.'

More information: , doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2009.09.013

Provided by University of Bonn (news : web)

Filter


Move the slider to adjust rank threshold, so that you can hide some of the comments.


Display comments: newest first

Nik_2213
Nov 02, 2009

Rank: 3 / 5 (1)
Shades of ECT without the 'C' etc, and stereotactic subcaudate tractotomy (sp) using radioactives or diathermy...

FWIW, like SST, placing those electrodes will significantly increase risk of epilepsy. Developing that a decade later would rather take the shine off the benefits...

Any chance this 'invasive' DBS could be matched by Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) which is non-invasive ??
otto1923
Nov 02, 2009

Rank: 1 / 5 (1)
Shades of Niven;
"Louis Wu was under the wire when two men came to invade his privacy.
He was in full lotus position on the lush yellow indoor-grass carpet. His smile was blissful, dreamy. The apartment was small, just one big room. He could see both doors. But, lost in the joy that only a wirehead knows, he never saw them arrive. Suddenly they were there: two pale youths, both over seven feet tall, studying Louis with contemptuous smiles. One snorted and dropped something weapon-shaped in his pocket. They were stepping forward as Louis stood up.

It wasn't just the happy smile that fooled them. It was the fist-sized droud that protruded like a black plastic canker from the crown of Louis Wu's head. They were dealing with a current addict..."
-Ringworld Engineers

-Germans, of course... :-)
NonRational
Nov 04, 2009

Rank: not rated yet
Feeling like you have been rewarded greatly in turn causing you to feel happy and motivated makes sense. Depressed people often have had serious setbacks in their lives. Feeling like you have made progress could be very effective in depression reduction.
superhuman
Nov 15, 2009

Rank: not rated yet
It's possible one day most humans will have such electrodes implanted.

Imagine having full control over your emotions, happiness, energy, motivation and so on. Human potential would skyrocket, but the cost is much harder to anticipate and could be just as extreme.

Imagine government having full control over those...
Rank 5 /5 (2 votes)
Relevant PhysicsForums posts
  • Is Everyday Technology Killing Us?
    createdFeb 08, 2012
  • Exercise and weight loss
    createdFeb 08, 2012
  • Why do we have head aches? Our brains can't feel anything.
    createdFeb 07, 2012
  • "The end of diseases" by David Agus, interview from Daily Show with Jon Stewart
    createdFeb 04, 2012
  • Oncolytic adenovirus
    createdFeb 04, 2012
  • Nutrition label stuffs and diets
    createdFeb 02, 2012
  • More from Physics Forums - Medical Sciences

More news stories

Team isolates nerve cells involved in storing long term memory and gene proteins associated with them

(Medical Xpress) -- A research team in Taiwan has succeeded in isolating two nerve cells in fruit fly brains that are believed to be the major players in allowing for the formation of long term memories. Furthermore, ...

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created 55 minutes ago | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast report

News of plaque-clearing drug tops week of major advances against Alzheimer's disease

In the last eight days, scientists have delivered a powerful one-two punch in the fight to defeat Alzheimer's disease. At the same time, the White House and members of Congress are proposing increases in Alzheimer's research ...

Medicine & Health / Diseases

created 51 minutes ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 1

To avoid early labor and delivery, weight and diet changes not the answer

One of the strongest known risk factors for spontaneous or unexpected preterm birth – any birth that occurs before the 37th week of pregnancy, most often without a known cause – is already having had one. For women ...

Medicine & Health / Health

created 4 minutes ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Joint patent for using the BRCA1 gene as a therapy for cardiovascular disease

St. Michael's Hospital and King Saud University have received their first joint U.S. patent to use the BRCA1 gene as a therapy for cardiovascular disease.

Medicine & Health / Genetics

created 20 minutes ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

S.Africa in $208 mln AIDS drug venture with Swiss Lonza

South Africa on Friday unveiled plans for a 1.6 billion rand ($208 million, 157 million euro) pharmaceutical plant, in a joint venture with Swiss biochemicals group Lonza to produce anti-AIDS drugs.

Medicine & Health / HIV & AIDS

created 1 hour ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0


The power of estrogen -- male snakes attract other males

A new study has shown that boosting the estrogen levels of male garter snakes causes them to secrete the same pheromones that females use to attract suitors, and turned the males into just about the sexiest ...

Could Venus be shifting gear?

(PhysOrg.com) -- ESA’s Venus Express spacecraft has discovered that our cloud-covered neighbour spins a little slower than previously measured. Peering through the dense atmosphere in the infrared, the ...

Experts reveal how plants don't get sunburn

(PhysOrg.com) -- Experts at the University of Glasgow have discovered how plants survive the harmful rays of the sun.

Fool's gold may prove an unlikely alternative to overexploited catalytic materials

Catalytic materials, which lower the energy barriers for chemical reactions, are used in everything from the commercial production of chemicals to catalytic converters in car engines. However, with current catalytic materials ...

SLAC, Stanford team focuses on high-energy electrons to treat cancer

Accelerator physicists at SLAC and cancer specialists from Stanford are working on a new technology that could dramatically reduce the time needed for cancer radiation treatments. The team ran an initial experiment ...

Unpicking HIV’s invisibility cloak

Drug researchers hunting for alternative ways to treat human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections may soon have a novel target—its camouflage coat. HIV hides inside a cloak unusually rich in a sugar ...