People with otherwise untreatable depression improved in a small clinical trial after receiving electrical stimulation of a part of the brain that scientists believe regulates sadness.
A report last week in the journal Biological Psychiatry said that 12 of 20 patients with chronic major depression benefited from the electronic device — including seven whose disease went into remission. The benefits were sustained over the course of the one-year study, researchers said.
“These were patients at the end of the road. They had tried other treatments, and nothing seemed to stick,” said University of Toronto neurosurgeon Dr. Andres Lozano, who led the study.
Major depressive disorder affects about 14 million people in the U.S., and 10 percent of them do not respond to standard medical treatment, according to the study.
Deep brain stimulation is approved to treat essential tremors and Parkinson’s disease.
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