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Successful study Deep brain stimulation successfully relieves severe depression
Depression has long been one of the most widespread diseases worldwide. In Germany alone, around six million people are affected within one year, according to health experts. The disease is usually treated with medication and psychotherapy. In the future, deep brain stimulation could also be a treatment option, researchers report.
Number of people with depression is rising
According to a recent study by the World Health Organization (WHO), the number of people with depression has risen sharply in recent years. Sufferers usually suffer from sustained depressed mood, listlessness, anxiety or sleep disorders. The treatment of depression is traditionally medications (antidepressants) and psychotherapy. But with the seriously ill, this often remains ineffective. German scientists are now reporting a new treatment option.
More and more people are suffering from depression. In some cases so severe that the treatment has no effect. Researchers now report that deep brain stimulation may be a treatment option for patients with the most severe depression. (Image: BillionPhotos.com/fotolia.com) Relieve or repair symptoms over several years
Deep brain stimulation can alleviate or even remedy the symptoms of patients with previously untreatable, severe forms of depression over several years. Researchers at the University Hospital Freiburg have now demonstrated this in a long-term study of this form of therapy.
According to a statement, seven of the eight treated patients had sustained improvement in symptoms with continuous stimulation until the 4-year follow-up.
Therapy remained the same throughout the entire time. Slight side effects could be avoided by adjusting the stimulation. The study results were published in the journal "Brain Stimulation".
Promising approach
"Most of the patients respond to the therapy. It is unique that they also do this permanently, "said study leader Prof. Dr. med. Thomas Schläpfer, Head of the Department of Interventional Biological Psychiatry at the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy of the University Medical Center Freiburg.
"Other therapies often lose their effectiveness over time. Thus, deep brain stimulation is a promising approach for people with previously untreatable depression, "says the expert.
Deep brain stimulation is a light electrical stimulation-based technique that can be used to manipulate precisely selected areas of the brain.
Effect in patients with severe depression
According to the researchers, between the ages of three and eleven, the eight subjects continuously suffered from the most severe depression, in which neither drug or psychotherapeutic treatments nor stimulation procedures such as electroconvulsive therapy improved.
The doctors implanted wafer-thin electrodes and stimulated a brain area, which participates in the perception of joy and thus also for motivation and quality of life of importance.
The effect of the therapy evaluated the physicians monthly with the help of the established Montgomery Asberg Rating Scale (MARDS). As the "Ärzte Zeitung" explains, this questionnaire assesses the severity of a depressive syndrome from ten questions that assess the symptoms of the past week.
It turned out that the MARDS score dropped from an average of 30 points to 12 points in the first month, and even dropped slightly by the end of the study. The MARDS score of ten points from which depression is diagnosed fell below four.
In some years an effective treatment option
Some patients suffered from blurred vision or under double vision for a short time. "We were able to remedy the side effects by reducing stimulation intensity without the antidepressant effect of the therapy having diminished", says Prof. Dr. med. Volker A. Coenen, Head of the Department of Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery at the Department of Neurosurgery of the University Medical Center Freiburg.
No personality changes, thought disorders or other side effects were observed in any patient.
If the efficacy and safety of the therapy is confirmed in another five-year study with 50 patients currently running at the University Hospital of Freiburg, Prof. Coenen sees the possibility of a European registration of the therapy procedure.
This allows the use of the therapy also outside of studies: "For patients with severe depression, such deep brain stimulation could be an effective treatment option in a few years," said Prof. Coenen. (Ad)