Treatment with deep brain stimulation can provide lasting relief to patients suffering from previously non-treatable, severe forms of depression several years into the therapy or even eliminate symptoms entirely. This is the finding of the first long-term study on this form of therapy, conducted by scientists at the Medical Center - University of Freiburg. Seven of the eight patients receiving continuous stimulation in the study showed lasting improvements in their symptoms up to the last observation point four years into treatment. The therapy remained equally effective over the entire period. The scientists prevented minor side-effects from appearing by adjusting the stimulation. The study was published in the journal Brain Stimulation on 1 March 2017.
And how about schizophrenia?
Does it provide relief from schizophrenia?
Does it relieve the cognitive symptoms in particular?
In any case I am happy for people with depression, I wish I had depression instead of schizophrenia,
I would solve it within seconds.
My hope is that they will fin out that it does indeed work for psychosis as well. While it may be a different portion of the brain that needs stimulating. This is good news for the Mental health community.
I posted this in the news section because many people here deal with chronic depression too…
We all share the same hope regarding positive, negative and cognitive aspects of schizophrenia
It’s taken many months for my depression to begin to lift and I am on three types of meds for it.
While it’s definitely not as serious as psychosis, it can be really really bad. I would think that DBS would be an absolute last resort.
Why ?
If your character is that you are highly resilient and have high flexibility
I think that these are character traits that may help you deal with mental illness.
It seems to me that these are parts of character.
Your symptoms may not disappear completely,
but being resilient and flexible certainly helps you cope better with the problem. @Moonbeam
It is a last report right now for cases that don’t respond to treatment with medication and therapy. But if it continues to prove to be safe and effective it may become a preferred treatment.
Edited to add that because today’s technology involves brain surgery, it probably would not be a common treatment until they can do it with a cap or some such device. Even of the implants were placed via stent, it’s still invasive.
I don’t know how I would feel about wearing electrodes around on my skull. I already feel like a freak for having been psychotic half a dozen times.
In order for me to get DBS they would have to garantee long lasting relief and no more medication.
If they had one that prevented psychotic breaks from happening I would gladly sign up in a second.
You can have a great character and do all the right things and still not be able to recover from a depression, Erez. It’s far from that simple. Some people might be a little too comfortable with being depressed, but I don’t think that’s a major factor for most people.
I apologize to @Moonbeam if you find it offensive.
I think that I don’t have depression, thus it is difficult for me to estimate.
I wrote what I wrote, because depression is considered to be significantly milder than
schizophrenia.
However I am really not an expert in depression, so it’s a matter that is difficult for me to discuss.
Yeah. Right now the risk of dying because of the procedure is something like 3 or 4% But of course the risk of death from untreated MDD is also very high.
I suspect they will eventually be able to target these areas of the brain in a less invasive way that will be safer.
That is what my doctor thinks(that they will be able to target parts of the brain in less invasive ways). That is the way she said that they will eventually treat psychosis, by zapping it out of our brains. So it’s interesting that you say that.
I’m not about to participate in a study but I would move heaven and earth to make sure that I would never have another psychotic episode. If I had that peace of mind, I would be out there living my life. But the constant fear and recollection of the psychosis is too much to bare. What is your feeling on what I just said?
