SAN DIEGO, Calif. (Ivanhoe Newswire) – Depression is one of the most common mental disorders in the U.S. An estimated 21 million adults had at least one major depressive episode last year. treatment resistant depression, or TRD.
For many people, depression can be eased with medications and therapy. But for some, traditional therapies don’t help. Now, there is a new treatment that may make all the difference.
Robert Mason knows what it’s like living with depression.
“For me, it was having no energy, no motivation,” Mason explained.
For most people, anti-depressants help, but there are more than three million suffering from treatment resistant depression, or TRD.
Patients with TRD are often treated with electroconvulsive therapy, or ECT, where small electric currents are passed through the brain, triggering a seizure and causing changes in brain chemistry that reverse symptoms of depression.
“It is one of our most controversial treatments in psychiatry, in part, because it works so effectively, but also, it does cause cognitive side effects,” Chair of Psychiatry at UC San Diego, Dr. Zafiris Daskalakis informed.
Some of the cognitive side effects include confusion and memory loss.
In a first-of-its-kind study, psychiatrists at UC San Diego researched whether using magnets could be as effective, or even better, at treating TRD.
Dr. Daskalakis said, “Magnets and magnetic fields can activate the brain in a very similar way.”
MST, or magnetic seizure therapy, delivers high intensity magnet field impulses to the brain.
“The advantage of magnetic seizure therapy is that it produces the same type of seizure that electroconvulsive therapy produces albeit in a way that is much more focused and doesn’t spread throughout the brain,” Dr. Daskalakis added.
In a study with 30 people over 12 sessions, two-thirds were improved without any adverse cognitive effects. The relapse rate with continued MST was also lower.
Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, or rTMS, is already FDA approved. Up next, researchers are planning a larger study. Doctors hope that the results will help to make this therapy more widely used and even become a therapy that can be used at home.
Contributors to this news report include: Marsha Lewis, Producer.
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Source:
https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/major-depression
MEDICAL BREAKTHROUGHS
RESEARCH SUMMARY
TOPIC: TRD: ELECTRICITY VS. MAGNETS: WHICH IS BETTER FOR TREATING DEPRESSION?
REPORT: MB #5027
DEPRESSION BACKGROUND: Depression, or major depressive disorder affects how you feel, think, and act. It is treatable, but depression causes feelings of sadness and loss of interest in what used to be enjoyable. A variety of emotional and physical symptoms stem from having depression, and they can affect how you act at work or home. The minimum for lasting symptoms of depression is about two weeks and must represent a change in your previous level of functioning for you to be diagnosed with depression. Medical conditions like thyroid problems or a brain tumor or vitamin deficiency can mimic depression symptoms. Depression affects one in 15 adults in any given year. One in six people will experience depression symptoms at some point in their life. Women are more likely to experience depression, in fact one third of women will experience a major depressive episode in their lifetime. Depression is also hereditary, usually when first-degree relatives have depression.
(Source: https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/depression/what-is-depression)
DIAGNOSING DEPRESSION: Doctors will determine if you are depressed through a physical exam, lab tests, and psychiatric evaluation. There are different kinds of depression, such as, anxious distress when depression with unusual restlessness or worry about possible events or loss of control. Mixed features, when simultaneous depression and mania, which includes elevated self-esteem, talking too much and increased energy. Melancholic features, where severe depression with lack of response to something that used to bring pleasure and associated with early morning awakening, worsened mood in the morning, major changes in appetite, and feelings of guilt, agitation or sluggishness. Atypical features, when depression that includes the ability to temporarily be cheered by happy events, increased appetite, excessive need for sleep, sensitivity to rejection, and a heavy feeling in the arms or legs. Psychotic features, when depression accompanied by delusions or hallucinations, which may involve personal inadequacy or other negative themes. Catatonia, which is depression that includes motor activity that involves either uncontrollable and purposeless movement or fixed and inflexible posture. Peripartum onset, which is depression that occurs during pregnancy or in the weeks or months after delivery, this is also referred to as postpartum. Seasonal pattern or SAD, which is depression related to changes in seasons and reduced exposure to sunlight.
(Source: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/depression/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20356013)
NEW TECHNOLOGY TO TREAT DEPRESSION: Stanford Medicine is studying experimental depression which is 80% effective in their controlled study. It’s a type of magnetic brain stimulation called ‘Stanford accelerated intelligent neuromodulation therapy, or SAINT. This is an individualized form of transcranial magnetic stimulation, and remission for patients started happening in days and lasted for months. The side effects are fatigue and headaches.
(Source: https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2021/10/depression-treatment.html)
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THIS REPORT, PLEASE CONTACT:
Michelle Brubaker
(858) 249-0416
If this story or any other Ivanhoe story has impacted your life or prompted you or someone you know to seek or change treatments, please let us know by contacting Marjorie Bekaert Thomas at mthomas@ivanhoe.com
