Researchers were able to alleviate a patient’s severe depression by using an electronic brain implant that acts as a neural “pacemaker”, resetting the brain circuits associated with negative feelings, reports the American newspaper Financial Times.
The University of California, San Francisco (USA) team, cited by the journal, says the study is “a milestone in the scientific effort to treat psychiatric disorders through carefully targeted neural electronics.” The research results were published on Monday, 4, in the scientific journal Nature Medicine.
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“We have developed a precision medicine approach capable of successfully managing our patient’s treatment-resistant depression by identifying and modulating the circuitry in her brain that is uniquely associated with her symptoms,” says researcher Andrew Krystal, one of the authors of study, cited by the Financial Times.
In a conversation with the American newspaper, the 36-year-old patient, who asked to be called Sarah, says that the implant transformed her life after suffering for five years with severe depression that did not respond to any medication or electroconvulsive therapy. “I felt tortured by thoughts of suicide every day. I was at my limit”, completes the patient.
Almost immediately after the implant was placed in the brain, Sarah felt a relief that has lasted a year. When it detects neural activity associated with irrational thoughts, which previously triggered depressive obsessions, electrodes emit a short corrective electrical pulse, which stops the bad feeling, explains the Financial Times.
Before the study at the University of California at San Francisco, the use of neuroelectronics to treat depression was hampered by scientists’ lack of knowledge about the brain circuits associated with the disease.
The team’s main finding was a “biomarker” that indicates the onset of depressive symptoms, a specific pattern of neural activity in the part of the brain called the amygdala that deals with responses to threats, the journal says.
The device used on patient Sarah was adapted from one normally associated with the treatment of epilepsy. When it detects the biomarker in the amygdala, it sends tiny electrical pulses to another area, the ventral striatum, which is part of the brain’s pleasure and reward system. This immediately eliminates unwanted negative thoughts.
“Placing an implant under the skull with electrodes that extend deep into the brain is an expensive, invasive and potentially risky procedure. As soon as the details of the brain circuits underlying depression are better understood, we hope to find non-invasive biomarkers that can be used”, says researcher Katherine Scangos, one of the authors of the study, cited by the Financial Times.
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