UK Edition
A severely depressed patient was left with a "genuine sense of glee and happiness" after receiving electrical stimulation to her brain, scientists have reported in a world’s first case study.
The unnamed 36-year-old, who had experienced multiple episodes of treatment-resistant depression since childhood, is the first to have electrodes placed at different regions of the brain to treat symptoms.
Researchers from the University of California San Francisco, found that 90-second stimulation of different brain sites could produce an array of positive emotional states, with the patient reporting "tingles of pleasure" and sensations of calm enjoyment.
“I've tried literally everything, and for the first few days I was a little worried that this wasn't going to work,” the patient said.
“But then when they found the right spot, it was like the Pillsbury Doughboy when he gets poked in the tummy and has that involuntary giggle.
“I hadn't really laughed at anything for maybe five years, but I suddenly felt a genuine sense of glee and happiness, and the world went from shades of dark gray to just grinning.”
Researchers found the positive effects lasted for hours, and the patient's symptoms got significantly better over the course of the 10-day study, leading to a temporary remission lasting six weeks.
“The fact that we could eliminate this patient's symptoms for hours with just a few minutes of targeted stimulation was remarkable to see,” said Dr Katherine Scangos, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California San Francisco.
“It emphasizes that even the most severe depression is a brain circuit disease that may just need a targeted nudge back into a healthy state.
“Unlike antidepressant drugs, which might not have an effect for one to three months, probably by altering brain circuits in ways we don't understand, our hope is that this approach will be effective precisely because it only requires brief, mild stimulation when the undesired brain state we want to change is present.”
Electrical brain stimulation, which dates back to the Victoria era, is now widely used for conditions such as epilepsy and Parkinson’s disease, but it is the first time it has been shown to treat severe depression.
The team found that stimulating the ventral capsule/ventral striatum, an area linked to reward-related behavior, addressed feelings of low energy and loss of pleasure in everyday activities.
“Every time they'd stimulate, I felt like, 'I'm my old self, I could go back to work, I could do the things I want to do with my life',” added the patient.
Scientists are hoping the approach will help people who do not respond to existing therapies and are at high risk of suicide. They are continuing their trials with 11 more patients.
“The brain, like the heart, is an electrical organ, and there is a growing acceptance in the field that the faulty brain networks that cause depression could be shifted into a healthier state by targeted stimulation," added Dr Scangos.
The case study was reported in the journal Nature Medicine.