Zapping the brain
About 10% of the population of the US will suffer from clinical depression before the age of 40. A treatment that is becoming more frequently used is surgery to attach a pacemaker to the vagus nerve. Read more here.
Saturday, June 2, 2007
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6 comments:
I find it to be very strange that something like zapping the brain ca help with depression, but evidently it is working. Maybe this also relieves stress buildup as well. It is also strange how a device origionally designed to be used for patient with epilepsy could find its way on the nerve stems of patients suffering from depression. I find it to be very frustrating at times when doctors keep trying to prescribe things to their patients who have depression issues, because depression many times is part of a lifestyle, social, and spiritual problem. My neighbor committed suicide by overdosing on his anti-depressant pills because he couldn't fill the void that he felt in his life. Even though I find this treatment in many ways to be helpful, I feel that much of the problem with depression has to do with our society and the selfishness surrounding it. Instead of prescribing medication for those who are depressed and leaving them be, we need to get out of our comfort zones and make an honest effort to befriend those who need help.
Stephen 2068
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/06/01/electrodes_tec.html?category=technology&guid=20070601131500
Silvestre
3714
This article is extremely interesting, yet it is also very disturbing. For example, by being able to zap a person with a device you can be, to an extentic, be cure of clinical depression. I find that this device if it is approved to a standard practice by which Doctors use to help patients, can be numbing drug of reality. Depression is a normal thing that occurs to humans, just like death, and childbirth. Depression is something that is set up for humans to overcome. Granted there are certain situations where humans need medical help to overcome the depression. Depression should not be removed by medication by the own will power by the patient. Some medication will lead to more problems. Subsequently, the use of depression only make the human stronger. Furthermore, sometimes the best treatment for depression is love from other humans, love in the sense of communication, and patience.
Some forms to help cure depression are exercise. As in this website says, http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Depression_and_exercise?OpenDocument , exercise can help lead to more cures.
Justin, 6844
I thought that this article was very intersting because I'm always interested with biotech. Fusing machinery with humans is always a skeptical issue because to me, it makes the person "less human." Especially for this case, using a pacemaker to help alleviate depression is somewhat strange. Although there are already pacemakers for hearts, I just find it strange and even dangerous to use it for depression. To go through such crucial and high risks of damaging nerves, especially the vagus nerve, just to help depression when there's already treatments for depression. Of course it's always neat to find new ways to help diseases by using technology. Even though i'm a fan of biotechnology, I just don't find using using a pacemaker as an anti-depressant to be the best solution. Perhaps it's just a personal preferance or that I just don't fully understand how it works, but it just doesnt seem safe or efficient to me.
http://www.medicinenet.com/pacemaker/page3.htm#design
Brandon Mead 5818
I think that this surgery really has a chance of changing some things in our society because I have some first hand experience with a similar procedure. My mother broke two of the disks in her spine and was in terrible amounts of pain. The doctors inserted an electrical node into the pain centers of her brain that would react if her spine was not feeling well. When she has some pain she simply gets a little shock that she doesn't even feel and it's gone. It's been great for her because she can continue her life without worrying about her constant pain. This procedure seems very similar to the one in the article.
I found this article about the neurostimulator that was implanted in my mom.
http://www.medtronic.com/neuro/paintherapies/pain_treatment_ladder/neurostimulation/neuro_neurostimulation.html
Davidson Lao
8776
I think this is the perfect example of how technology can make things very convenient. Before we were revelling over electroshock treatment, but then that required people to be in and out of treatment centers. Now, we can have the same sort of therapy "on the go." It is definitely a sign of the times. Also, it is making up for the greater number of depression cases diagnosed today. I feel like this treatment will be a staple of our generation because of the boom in psychological diseases in our time. Nothing beats naturally beating depression and other similar diseases, but this will be an important tool in the future.
Here's a link to the history of shock therapy:
http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n04/historia/shock_i.htm#cerletti
Amira, 7670
The pace at which science is advancing is quite unbelievable. It is so interesting to me how different devises and medicines may be used interchangeably throughout the body. Simply with more and more research that is done in the world of science, researches will continue to discover new relationships and similar uses for all aspects of medicine and of the human body.
Using this article as an example; it is interesting how a device that was used to better control epilepsy can have a connection with treating depression. I think such a device is useful considering there aren't any side effects. Such a creation is much more convincing to me than other anti-depressant pills that have an endless amount of side effects. I always read and hear about people who in fact end up committing suicide from the immense state of depression they are in; so such devices may be the new channel for people with depression.
Below - another article on this pacemaker:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=30490
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