Brain Stimulation For Depression

Finding new ways to help people with depression is of constant concern since not all people respond to treatment such as medication.

Brain stimulation for depression is not a new phenomenon but researchers at Stanford University believe they’ve been able to make an already approved form of brain stimulation even better.  The researchers published a new trial at the end of October 2021 and found that 80% of patients improved after going through treatment.
The basic concept behind it is to use electrical impulses to balance out the erratic brain activity associated with neurological or psychiatric disorders. There are different forms of stimulation, which vary in intensity and how they interact with the body. Some require permanent implants in the brain, while others can be used noninvasively, like repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS). As the name suggests, rTMS relies on magnetic fields that are temporarily applied to the head.

Scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine have been trying to improve rTMS. Their technique, now dubbed the Stanford neuromodulation therapy (SNT), relies on higher-dose magnetic pulses delivered over a quicker, five-day schedule, meant to mimic about seven months of standard rTMS treatment. The treatment is also personalized to each patient, with MRI scans used beforehand to pick out the best possible locations along the brain to deliver these pulses.

About the Brain Stimulation Lab at Stanford:

The mission of the BSL is to employ cutting-edge neuroimaging techniques in an effort to develop new hypotheses regarding proposed dysfunction within the neural networks involved in neuropsychiatric diseases/disorders. With this information, the team uses neuromodulation strategies to assess whether our proposed brain-behavior theories are accurate. 

The BSL offers research study treatments for numerous neuropsychiatric diseases/disorders. Currently, the BSL has several active studies examining topics such as treatment-resistant depression, chronic pain, addiction, suicide, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. BSL studies utilize novel brain stimulation techniques, novel psychopharmacological approaches and neuroimaging methods.

Disorders of interest to the Brain Stimulation Lab at Stanford include treatment-resistant depression (unipolar and bipolar), obsessive-compulsive disorder, suicide, mania, addiction, chronic pain, borderline personality disorder, depression associated with Parkinson’s disease, and persistent tic disorders.

For more information visit:  https://bsl.stanford.edu