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The future is now! Treating Severe Depression with On-Demand Brain Stimulation

UCSF Health physicians have successfully treated a patient with severe depression by tapping into the specific brain circuit involved in depressive brain patterns and resetting them using the equivalent of a pacemaker for the brain.

The study, which appears in the Oct. 4, 2021, issue of Nature Medicine, represents a landmark success in the years-long effort to apply advances in neuroscience to the treatment of psychiatric disorders.

“This study points the way to a new paradigm that is desperately needed in psychiatry,” said Andrew Krystal, PhD, professor of psychiatry and member of the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences. “We’ve developed a precision-medicine approach that has successfully managed our patient’s treatment-resistant depression by identifying and modulating the circuit in her brain that’s uniquely associated with her symptoms.”

Link: https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2021/09/421541/treating-severe-depression-demand-brain-stimulation?fbclid=IwAR3cD-OVVKafHYCL0BLEl9Vt2JO3Zk-4rn40hw7KMlIAD4no767GoZkjm_k