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I am honestly glad this sort of researching is leading the way towards a quantitative measure of depression. I am not sure if we'll get to the level of a finger

I am honestly glad this sort of researching is leading the way towards a quantitative measure of depression. I am not sure if we'll get to the level of a finger prick blood test that we use for diabetes, but research like this makes me think more positively of the future. I know the medical healthcare community is slow to change to an evidence research based approach because "we do it because it's shown to work in the past". Doctors overriding novel research papers and going based on intuition is something deeply ingrained in healthcare culture. I hope and am optimistic that this changes with the current generation of doctors where research papers and UpToDate is a few clicks away. Depression is subjective because it's defined by symptoms rather than quantitative tests, but that's a limitation of the current technology. Psychiatry is one of the few fields of medicine that reminds me of when the answer to a lot of ailments used to be bloodletting. Some drugs like benzos and lithium help stabilize mood at the cost of cognitive functioning. Those aren't drugs of the past, they're used by doctors today. The zapping a brain with electrodes, sounds liked a more selective way of using ECT. I am sure the patients in these clinical trials understand the risks and I understand we're not in the age of medicine where lobotomies are done negligently or from a patriarchal view of how a man and woman should behave. I think the first major step to ridding the idea and stigma around mental health, such as when people casually call themselves depressed or say they're addicted to shopping, is to quantify it. I hate the idea that suicidal thoughts and attempts are the benchmark that the general public uses to gauge the severity of depression. This might not be a perfect study and it's so specialized to the individual. But even if this study shows which biomarkers from which parts of the brain are correlated with what kind of depressive symptoms, that would be leaps and bounds ahead of what current clinical psychiatry looks like. Edit: I just remembered the extrapolating that some people are doing in the rest of the thread. The Penfield Mood Organ from the world of Philip K. Dick's, Do Android Dreams of Electric Sheep. The first chapter describes one of the characters dialing the device to make herself feel deep despair and depression for a set amount of time twice a month to feel human. It's an interesting read if people haven't yet, Blade Runner is the movie based loosely based on it. They are different enough that the book is worth reading even if you've seen the movie.

PragmaticPulp 5y ago
> The zapping a brain with electrodes, sounds liked a more selective way of using ECT. This method is entirely different than ECT. The researchers used an electrode to disrupt specific ruminative thoughts that were causing, or at least perpetuating, the patient’s depression. It’s more analogous to traditional therapy methods applied by brute force at the physical level. Whereas traditional therapy would train patients to identify and break negative thoughts loops, this patient was apparently unable to do so. The brain implant physically disrupts part of the brain that contributes to those loops, opening the door for recovery from the self-defeating process.
- knaik94 5y ago
  I have done research in the computational healthcare field to try to optimize and make the placement of electrodes easier for surgeons by analyzing spike neuron activity that were recorded during an actual surgery that had place. The electrodes in DBS by purpose continuously release electric pulses at target locations in the brain. ECT, from my understanding is a short full brain excitation using electric pulses. The location of where the electrodes are places on the outside of the head change what part of the brain is targeted. This research is a middle ground where they are using the same technology to send short "six second" impulses to a very targeted part of the brain. I don't agree that this is entirely different from ECT. https://mayfieldclinic.com/pe-dbs.htm https://mayfieldclinic.com/pe-dbs.htm

PragmaticPulp 5y ago

> The zapping a brain with electrodes, sounds liked a more selective way of using ECT. This method is entirely different than ECT. The researchers used an electrode to disrupt specific ruminative thoughts that were causing, or at least perpetuating, the patient’s depression. It’s more analogous to traditional therapy methods applied by brute force at the physical level. Whereas traditional therapy would train patients to identify and break negative thoughts loops, this patient was apparently unable to do so. The brain implant physically disrupts part of the brain that contributes to those loops, opening the door for recovery from the self-defeating process.

knaik94 5y ago
I have done research in the computational healthcare field to try to optimize and make the placement of electrodes easier for surgeons by analyzing spike neuron activity that were recorded during an actual surgery that had place. The electrodes in DBS by purpose continuously release electric pulses at target locations in the brain. ECT, from my understanding is a short full brain excitation using electric pulses. The location of where the electrodes are places on the outside of the head change what part of the brain is targeted. This research is a middle ground where they are using the same technology to send short "six second" impulses to a very targeted part of the brain. I don't agree that this is entirely different from ECT. https://mayfieldclinic.com/pe-dbs.htm https://mayfieldclinic.com/pe-dbs.htm