Researchers are becoming increasingly convinced that tiny electric shocks delivered deep into the brain could mean new hope for patients with severe depression and other mental illnesses. Several small trials are suggesting direct electrical brain stimulation has the ability to relieve deep depression and obsessive compulsive disorder in some patients who get no help from drugs or talk therapy.
While the results are far from perfect, researchers believe that the treatment, known as deep brain stimulation (DBS), could be a help to some patients who otherwise might be at a dead end in their treatment.
"If we can get people out of the pit, we can get them on the road to recovery," says Helen Mayberg, MD, an Emory University neurologist who studies DBS in severely ill patients.
Deep brain stimulation involves the placement of electrodes into the brain that deliver electrical stimulation to specific brain areas. It is a treatment option for severe symptoms of Parkinson's disease and other neurological conditions.
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