DBS for Depression Treatment

Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) therapy has had great success in controlling limb tremors in thousands of people with Parkinson’s disease. Now DBS is in the stages of being used to treat patients with treatment-resistant depression. The therapy involves a tiny implant being embedded in the brain which delivers electrical stimulation to targeted neurons in the brain to make them fire or suppress them from firing. This is the premise of DBS treatment in that scientists can target the region of the brain that needs to be stimulated. Thus remitting the symptoms and the brain chemistry responsible for depression. Other studies are being conducted on the hormone, melanocortin and the MCR4 receptor that is involved in the synapses; both of which play a role in pleasure and pain, depression, and anxiety.

Early Studies Show Cure For Depression

When DBS was first used to treat Parkinson’s and other seizure disorders; the areas of the brain that needed to be stimulated were somewhat transient which made it more difficult to achieve the maximum efficacy of DBS. The implants are easier to work with in treating depression since the parts of the brain that are involved with the depression can be mapped. Unlike traditional medications where the effects can subside after long periods of use, Associate Professor Bittar has noticed the implants continue to benefit his depressed patients that had the implant placed four years ago. For some of the OCD patients the implants have had just as big an impact. New studies discovered the therapy to be effective over eight years.

About half get a dramatic benefit and some are more or less completely cured, said Professor McDermott, who discussed his work at the International Conference on Medical Bionics held on Victoria’s Phillip Island. They go from institutional care to a relatively normal life where they can have a job and pretty much normal social interactions again.

Treating Treatment Resistant Depression

Mayo Clinic has treated treated over one-thousand patients with DBS for: Parkinson’s, Tourette’s, OCD, and depression. And Abbot Labs. in July of 2022 has been granted from the FDA a Breakthrough Device Designation to investigate the use if its DBS device. Abbott’s DBS system is a personalized, adjustable therapy that involves implanting thin wires or leads into targeted areas of the brain. A pulse generator implanted under the skin in the chest is connected to the leads and produces electrical impulses that can modulate abnormal brain activity as symptoms occur. Abbott is working with the FDA to develop a plan for evaluating the device’s safety and effectiveness for this purpose.

The issue with DBS in the past has been to deliver steady impulse. Now one of the added benefits of certain Abbott DBS systems is that they can be used with NeuroSphere™ Virtual Clinic, a first-of-its-kind connected care technology that allows people to communicate with and receive care and therapy adjustments as the symptoms increase, from their doctors remotely and from the comfort of their own home. Read more about DBS and more on depression.

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