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Research & Giving News Article

Deep Brain Stimulation Shows Promise for Treatment-Resistant Depression

(Great Neck, NY - ) — A new treatment approach being studied by NARSAD researcher Dr. Helen Mayberg�s team is known as Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS), a reversible method of selective brain lesioning, as an alternative to standard neurosurgical approaches for treating severe, treatment-resistant major depression. Helen S. Mayberg, MD, a NARSAD Distinguished Investigator, of the Rotman Institute, was recently featured in the March, 2005 issue of Neuron magazine. Mayberg�s team introduces the study saying, �Treatment-resistant depression is a severely disabling disorder with no proven treatment options once multiple medications, psychotherapy, and electroconvulsive therapy have failed.� In some individuals, depression resists all of these known, proven treatments in the medical arsenal. Although deep brain stimulation has been used on other parts of the brain to treat epilepsy, Parkinson�s and other diseases, the technique had not previously been tried for treating major depression.

The team�s preliminary research showed that a certain area of the brain � the subgenual cingulated region � is metabolically overactive in patients with treatment resistant depression. Mayberg and her colleagues considered whether they could reduce this level of activity by selectively stimulating this part of the brain, electrically. The procedure for administering DBS involves drilling two openings into the skull, and implanting electrodes in the brain to administer a measured dose of current. Batteries that last for five years are implanted near the collarbone, and can be programmed through the skin.

The results of the study were striking and encouraging: four of six patients who received the treatment showed marked and sustained improvement six months after the procedure. Mayberg�s team writes, �These results suggest�electrical stimulation of the sugenual cingulated white matter can effectively reverse symptoms in otherwise treatment-resistant depression.�

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