- Michelle Roberts
- BBC Health Affairs Editor
Image source, Maurice Ramirez, UCSF 2021
Professor Catherine Scangos examines Sarah’s installation and progress.
American scientists have obtained satisfactory results in experiments on the first patient and believe that an electronic device implanted in the brain can detect and treat severe depression.
The patient’s name is Sarah, 36 years old, and previously suffered from severe depression. After more than a year of treatment with the brain electronic implant device, she said that her life has been completely changed.
The electronic implant in Sarah’s brain is the size of a matchbox and is always on, but it sends pulse signals only when it feels necessary.
The results of this study were published in the journal “Natural Medicine”.
Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco emphasized that it is too early to say whether it can help other patients with depression and chronic illness like Sarah, but they are confident and plan to conduct more trials.
Depression circuit diagram?
Sarah is the first person to receive this experimental treatment. She had taken antidepressants before and received electroconvulsive therapy in recent years, but they all ended in failure.
Surgical implantation of electronic devices in the brain sounds scary, but Sarah said that the hope of “any bit of relief” would be better than the dark pain she experienced.
“I tried all the treatments. I suffer every day and rarely move or do anything,” Sarah said.
Image source,John Lok, UCSF 2021
Sarah said the device helped treat her depression.
The doctor needs to drill two small holes in Sarah’s skull to install circuits that can monitor and stimulate her brain. A small box containing a battery and pulse transmitter was embedded in her skull under her scalp and hair.
The operation takes a whole day and requires general anesthesia. Sarah was unaware during the whole process. Sarah said that she felt euphoric after waking up from the operation.
She said, “When the electronic device was turned on for the first time, my life improved immediately. Life became better again.” “Within a few weeks, suicidal thoughts disappeared.”
A year later, Sarah still feels good and has no side effects.
Sarah said that the brain’s electronic device helped her get rid of depression, and put her in the best condition to rebuild her life.
She said she couldn’t feel it when the implanted device was emitting a signal. However, “can be noticed within 15 minutes after the signal stops, because at this time you will feel very awake or feel a positive energy.”
working principle
Researcher Dr. Scangos is also a psychiatrist at the University of California. She said that this innovative treatment may become a reality because they found the “depressive circuit” in Sarah’s brain.
Dr. Scangos said that they found a location called the ventral striatum, which can eliminate Sarah’s depression by constantly stimulating this area.
“We also found an active area in the amygdala of the brain that can predict when her symptoms will be the most severe,” Dr. Scangos said.
Scientists say they need to conduct more research on this therapy to determine whether it can help more patients with severe depression and perhaps other illnesses.
Personalized treatment
Dr. Scangos has already recruited 2 patients in the trial and hopes to recruit 9 more. She said that it is necessary to observe the differences in the brain circuits of different patients, and then repeat the test several times.
She said, “We need to observe whether individual biochemical markers or brain circuits will change as the treatment continues. Because her depression is so severe, we didn’t know whether we could treat her at first.”
Therefore, Dr. Scangos said that in this sense, they are very excited. Because this is currently very much needed in this field.
Edward Chang, a neurosurgeon who installed electronic equipment for Sarah, emphasized that it needs to be explained that this is not to prove the effectiveness of this method.
He said, “This is just the first time it has been shown to be effective on someone. We still have a lot of work to do in this area to prove whether it can be a longer-lasting treatment option.”
Professor Royser, a neuroscience expert at University College London, said that although this highly invasive surgery should only be used for critically ill patients with chronic diseases, the personalized characteristics of stimulating the brain represent “a step forward. An exciting step”.
Professor Royser said that if the experiment is performed on other patients, it is likely to need to record and stimulate different parts, because the precise brain circuits for different symptoms may vary from person to person.
He said, “Because it is just one patient and there are no controlled cases, it remains to be seen whether these exciting results can be established in clinical trials.”