I'm not a fan of an antidepressants or mood stablisers. Like applying plaster to a festering wound. Only numbs the emotion, flattens it so you don't feel so sad or derive much joy either. Depression is a imbalance in the brain. Some regions are under-performing, throws off all the balance (situational depression may be different). It's not schizophrenia or autism where there is real psychosis or working issues. That's why I took the trouble to find out the cost of TMS, a drug free treatment using pulsating magnetic fields to stimulate underperforming parts of the brain. It costs RM1,500 a session in Singapore, 30 sessions minimum. I know from all my readings that it is quite successful, better than drugs. And the methodology, stimulate only one brain region so that this region functions better and viola, depression gone. No drugs involved.
So I was really interested when I read about a clinical trial with this one woman who's tried everything including ECT. They put in something like a pacemaker that was originally designed and used for epilepsy. Like a heart pacemaker that detects when the heart is going off beat then delivers pulses to set it back to normal. But now a brain pacemaker that detects the brain doing into a low mood and gives a 6 second pulse to push it back to 'normal' in her own words.
“And I think one of the times we did that, she said, ‘Oh my goodness. This is me, this is who I remember being.’ And that’s something she hadn’t even thought that she’d be able to feel — normal again.”
DBS has been very successful for Parkinsons also so I'm very encouraged they're trying it for depression. It'll never become viable in my lifetime but hey, we all need hope. Maybe an Elon Musk genius will make a brain wire implanting robot to make the surgery affordable.
Anyway the link https://www.statnews.com/2021/10/04/deep-brain-stimulation-depression-relief-research/
“The idea of stimulating somebody and just a few seconds later, them saying, ‘My depression is gone’ … it is just stunning. They have this experience where they haven’t felt this good in years, they get hope. They feel like there’s a sense of relief that it feels like it’s not their fault because it’s changeable by modulating brain circuitry. It’s not that they didn’t do something right. It’s clearly linked to their body, their biology.”
Other more detailed links from Guardian and LiveScience
