A Charge to Stop Depression
A tiny jolt of electricity to the brain could one day effectively treat depression. That's the dream of psychiatrist John Rush of Dallas's Southwestern Medical Center.
Rush's vision was born in a hospital labor room in the mid-1970s. Neurophysiologist Jake Zabara was massaging his pregnant wife's vagus nerves, on the right and left side of the neck. That calmed her and eased her pain. Zabara reasoned that the massage altered brain waves--also a way to stop seizures. To experiment on epileptics, he invented an implant the size of a thin pocket watch. Placed under the left armpit, the VNS (vagus nerve stimulation) device emits an electrical charge about every five minutes. The device stopped seizures in dogs; in 1988, the first VNS was implanted in a human with epilepsy.
Scientists noticed that VNS improved the mood of epileptics, so Rush has taken the torch of innovation from seizures to depression. He explains that the vagus nerve routes signals through the brain's nucleus to centers controlling emotion, motivation, and appetite. "By stimulating [the nerve], maybe you can change its communication," says Rush. A pilot study last year tested the device on 30 chronically depressed patients unaffected by antidepressants. Four out of 10 showed an improvement in mood.
A controlled clinical trial of 4,500 could be the clincher. All patients will receive implants, but half will be activated for 10 weeks while the other half remain dormant. The second half will then have their devices activated. Results should be known in 2003. -S.B.
This story appears in the December 25, 2000 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.
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