A surgical cure for depression?

Can it be? Should it be? That’s the question raised by the New York Times‘ David Dobbs in this week’s Magazine. The story tells the frustrating tale of Deanna Cole-Benjamin, whose depression was so treatment-resistant, she was kept in a hospital for 10 months straight and had hundreds of ECT treatments. (Whatever her insurance is, I want it.)

Her doctor finally recommended experimental brain surgery, called D.B.S., and it worked from the moment the surgeons placed the electrode in her brain. When she was still in the operating room, she could feel a change. From the article:

Deanna later described it … “It was literally like a switch being turned on that had been held down for years,” she said. “All of a sudden they hit the spot, and I feel so calm and so peaceful. It was overwhelming to be able to process emotion on somebody’s face. I’d been numb to that for so long.”

Who knows if this is really an answer? We shouldn’t get too excited about it yet simply because it worked for a few desperately ill people. But I hope that, in the same way the lobotomy and insulin shock were discontinued when other treatment options became available, ECT will be felled by new developments like this one.

Dobbs writes:

And the treatment so far seems remarkably free of side effects. No one has suffered significant neural complications, probably because, unlike ECT, which sends 70 to 150 volts through the entire brain, these electrodes deliver only about 4 volts to an area about the size of a pea.

Sounds like a significant improvement. Dobbs points out, however, that this isn’t likely to revolutionize the mental health field anytime soon. The operation costs $40,000. I don’t think Blue Cross will cover that.

A Depression Switch?

liz | 3:31 PM | Uncategorized