DescentBB

Psychological depression is more than an emotional state. Good evidence for that comes from emerging new uses for a technology already widely prescribed for Parkinson’s patients. The more neurologists and surgeons learn about the aptly named deep brain stimulation, the more they are convinced that the currents from the technology’s implanted electrodes can literally reboot brain circuits involved with the mood disorder. Thomas Schlaepfer, a psychiatrist from the University of Bonn Hospital and a leading expert in researching deep brain stimulation, describes in the interview that follows the workings of the technique and why it may help the severely depressed.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/tal ... ndFacebook

Maybe someday the government will require chips in our heads that force us to be happy all the time.

This sounds like something I remember reading in a medical thriller a couple of decades ago. In that book, I remember a brain stimulation treatment to prevent seizures goes haywire, causing the patient to go crazy...

Interesting stuff.

Everybody should have a reset switch ! Sounds dystopian tho...

Here's bad news for depressed people, good news people afraid of mandatory implants: The early tests showed a lot of promise for this treatment with better than 50% of patients having improvement and no remission. However, subsequent tests have fared worse with that percentage slipping down to about 36%, which puts it only slightly better than anti-depressants and other forms of treatment.

Ah, here's the novel I was thinking of:

I think i'll toss it on the ol kindle

This is dangerous. The experiments should stop immediately imo. We know what it does. What it does isn't making people any stronger, smarter, wiser. If you want to have an orgasm, find someone to do it with.

DoTheGeek wrote:What it does isn't making people any stronger...

It is making some people stronger, that's the whole point of using deep-brain stimulation.

vision wrote:

DoTheGeek wrote:What it does isn't making people any stronger...

It is making some people stronger, that's the whole point of using deep-brain stimulation.

Unless you're making a joke about literal "deep" brain stimulation via information sharing, discussion, and introspection, I will have to say that triggering the brain's pleasure mechanisms is no way to becoming stronger...

DoTheGeek wrote:

vision wrote:

DoTheGeek wrote:What it does isn't making people any stronger...

It is making some people stronger, that's the whole point of using deep-brain stimulation.

Unless you're making a joke about literal "deep" brain stimulation via information sharing, discussion, and introspection, I will have to say that triggering the brain's pleasure mechanisms is no way to becoming stronger...

Deep brain stimulation isn't simply 'triggering the brain's pleasure mechanisms', watch this to see what an effect it can have for people with Parkinson's.

DoTheGeek wrote:...triggering the brain's pleasure mechanisms is no way to becoming stronger...

Ok I thought maybe you had a basic understanding of what depression is but I guess not. Depression is when the brain's pain center is overactive or their pleasure center is under-active (I know describing them as pleasure/pain centers is an abstraction). The condition is debilitating and destroys people's lives and families. The pain is so great that people would rather die than exist. This isn't about simply "triggering the brains pleasure mechanisms" but even if that were all it was this would still be useful to people whose pleasure systems are defective, dysfunctional, or otherwise not working. If the result of deep-brain-stimulation is that some people are strong enough to lead a normal life again, then I don't care what you want to call it. Also, this surgery is only for extreme cases after people have been suffering for years or decades.

Still this isn't a cure, it's a symptom arrester. My wife has something similar for severe joint pain in her knee. (she has no cartilage left.)

Interesting though.

The only sure way is to find a way to stimulate the production of cartilage by injection. Then you just add some tension to it, brace the bones to allow for growth, then slowly add the weight back on and let it snap back off tension. Lol, I've got 3 mri's here and that's my assessment

Duper wrote:Still this isn't a cure, it's a symptom arrester.

True, there currently is no cure for depression and that is unfortunate. However, anything that has close to permanent effects is in practice a cure even if the underlying cause has not been remedied. It's the same for other diseases that, let's say, do not remove viral components fro your system but instead render then harmless. I hope we do have a cure for the numerable mental illnesses that plague our brothers and sisters, but I fear we might be a few generations away from that kind of system tweaking.

Depression is a complex matter. I think it will be some time before a "one size fixes all" comes out. If indeed ever. There is some wonderful stuff on the way though. Give it another 50 years or so; perhaps sooner. Genetic research is uncovering some surprising things.

flip wrote:The only sure way is to find a way to stimulate the production of cartilage by injection. Then you just add some tension to it, brace the bones to allow for growth, then slowly add the weight back on and let it snap back off tension. Lol, I've got 3 mri's here and that's my assessment

well, the use of lovistatin did this to my wife. It's gone and the joint has deteriorated. The thing she has is more like electric acupuncture, not to stimulate the growth of cartilage. Actually, I've heard that the skin off of the inside of eggshells will help motivate healing and some reconstruction of joint cartilage. My wife will need a joint replacement eventually, but with active cancer also, there's little likelihood of that operation ever coming to fruition. Oh, she also suffers from depression and takes Paxil for that. It's worked well for nearly 20 years ... unfortunately, the long term use of it has started causing tremors. >.< can't win for losin'.

Sorry to hear it Duper. I know sometimes the cures are as bad or worse than the disease itself.

Duper wrote:Depression is a complex matter. I think it will be some time before a "one size fixes all" comes out. If indeed ever. There is some wonderful stuff on the way though. Give it another 50 years or so; perhaps sooner. Genetic research is uncovering some surprising things.

But in the meantime we can still help those we can still help. This is certainly a way to do that, but it's a prescription medication like any other prescription medication. Which may be the part that confused geek?