- A pacemaker-style implant shown in early trials to relieve
the symptoms of severe depression could be available to treat British patients
by next year.
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- Deep brain stimulation (DBS), already in use for Parkinson's
disease sufferers, is reported to have had immediate and dramatic effects
on most of the handful of Canadian patients on whom the technique has been
tested.
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- The technique uses electrical pulses, sent via implanted
electrodes, to jam neural wiring circuits in a part of the brain linked
to depression in patients for whom anti-depressants or electro-convulsive
therapy have failed.
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- A team from the University of Bristol hopes to set up
a centre to test DBS on British patients suffering severe depression.
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- About 300 to 400 Parkinson's patients are fitted with
implants each year in Britain. Electrical pulses fired into a specific
region of the brain halt or reduce the tremors associated with the disease.
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- Only eight patients, suffering severe depression and
not responding to drugs and other treatments, have had DBS.
-
- The technique involves drilling two holes into the skull
and inserting electrodes deep into the subgenual cingulate region, known
as Cg25, of the brain.
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- This is in the frontal lobes and plays an important role
in modulating sadness. It has been shown to be over-active in those suffering
depression.
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- The treatment reduces brain activity in Cg25, while stimulating
activity in parts of the frontal cortex.
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- Wires from the electrodes are threaded under the scalp
down to an implant sewn under the skin in the chest.
-
- Prof Helen Mayberg, of the Emory School of Medicine in
Atlanta, Georgia, the research leader, said: "Patients would experience
an immediate shut-down of their negative state." The treatment was
deemed to have worked on six out of eight patients. None suffered side-effects.
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- There are an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 British patients
with incurable severe depression who could be helped by the treatment.
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- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2005.
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- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/06
/28/ndbs28.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/06/28/ixhome.html
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