Brain ‘pacemaker’ found to lift severe depression in an instant

SEVERE depression can be treated instantly with a brain “pacemaker” that resets neural circuits and alleviates suicidal thoughts, a groundbreaking study has shown.

Scientists at the University of California monitored the brain activity of a suicidal patient to find brain regions that were active during major depressive episodes.

They then looked for other areas of the brain that turned off the depression when stimulated with electrical pulses.

Putting the two together, the researchers came up with a neuro-modulation implant that is constantly on the lookout for the first signs of depression and then delivers a short burst of electricity to reboot the brain circuits when they occur.

The research was published in the journal Nature Medicine.

The first patient to have the device fitted, a US woman known only as Sarah, said the treatment had been “transformative”.

“I was at the end of the line,” she said. “I had exhausted all possible treatment options with no success at lifting the depression that had descended five years earlier.

“My daily life had become so restricted and impoverished by depression that I felt tortured each day. I forced myself to resist the suicidal impulses that overtook me several times an hour. When I first received the stimulation, an ‘aha’ moment occurred and I felt the most intense joyous sensation, and my depression was a distant nightmare for a moment.

“When they implanted the chronic device and switched it on for the first time, my life took an immediate upward turn. I feel a sense of alertness or energy or positivity.

“Hobbies that I used to distract from suicidal thoughts became enjoyable again. A year into therapy, it has kept my depression at bay and allowed me to rebuild a life worth living.”

Scientists hoped that brain stimulation would work in treating depression after noticing that epilepsy patients

using “deep brain stimulation” therapy for seizures also saw improvements in emotional symptoms, such as anxiety.

For the treatment, the team placed temporary electrodes in several brain regions and delivered small pulses of stimulation, recording the clinical response. They discovered that certain brain activity in the amygdala predicted a depressive episode, while stimulating the ventral striatum stopped it.

They then developed a device about the size of a matchbook which was implanted in Sarah’s skull with electrodes running to the two parts of the brain, to monitor amygdala activity then deliver a six-second one milliampere pulse to the ventral striatum.

Scientists have found that Sarah’s brain activity triggers the device about 300 times a day, leading to 30 minutes of cumulative stimulation.

Jonathan Roiser, professor of neuroscience and mental health at UCL, said: “Although this kind of highly invasive surgical procedure would only ever be used in the most severe patients with intractable symptoms, it is an exciting step forward.”

He added: “As there was only one patient and no control condition, it remains to be seen whether these promising results hold in clinical trials.”