Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) have successfully used brain implants to treat resistant depression in a patient.
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antvklik.com – Depression is not an easy disease to cure. Nearly a third of patients with depression do not respond or are resistant to treatment. However, a new hope is emerging for people with resistant depression.
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Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) have successfully used brain implants to treat resistant depression in a 36-year-old patient named Sarah. These findings were published in Nature Medicine.
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Reported from Science Alert, Tuesday (5/10/2021), Sarah has been suffering from resistant depression since childhood. By the time she joined the UCSF case study, Sarah’s depression had reached a very severe level.
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Using electrode wires to stimulate Sarah’s inner brain, the researchers succeeded in alleviating her depression symptoms. Actually, the use of brain implants is not the first time this has been done.
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Deep brain stimulation therapy has been shown to be successful in alleviating various brain disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease and epilepsy. However, depression was found to be more difficult to treat than the two illnesses.
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A deep brain stimulation method for treating depression that targets specific brain areas, such as Brodmann’s area 25, has been found to not always work and is more likely to fail. Well, what is different from the UCSF method is the personalization.
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After undergoing this therapy, Sarah experienced extraordinary changes. He experienced a rapid reduction in depression and the effects persisted.
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So far, researchers have only managed to use this therapy in one person, and it’s not yet known how long the effects will last. Other studies investigating the effects of deep brain stimulation have also not shown significant results in clinical trials.
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However, the UCSF research team says Sarah’s success is a remarkable advance in knowledge about the brain functions that underlie mental illness.
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