News JVTech MIT scientists have created a depression detector and even a potential cure!
Published on 27/12/2022 at 17:55
A team of scientists has made a discovery that could change the way depression is treated. A revolution which is only at its beginning, but which already seems very promising.
The device that once saved a patient from depression
Depression is a vast subject and about which, neurologically speaking, we know little. The shapes are diverse and symptoms can vary greatly from one individual to another. So being able to detect depression from neurological data is absolutely revolutionary. Even if throughout the article, it will be necessary to take tweezers. This is experimentation and testing on a small sample.
MIT scientists
first started by implanting electrodes to analyze the brain activity of three out of five volunteers. This first study has potentially found the part of the brain responsible for mood. Looking closer, the scientists detected that when the person was feeling well, the neural indicator was on one side, while when the person was experiencing depressive symptoms, it was on the other side.
Treating depression with electrical stimulation
This is where we come to the part that may seem barbaric. As with Parkinson’s disease, scientists wondered if activating the part of the brain responsible for depression could influence it.
It turns out that John, a patient whose name has been anonymized, had 14 electrodes implanted in his brain. A risky procedure, which fortunately had no negative impact. The electrodes were thus activated in different ways, with different patterns and intensities.
Scientists then realized that four electrodes were enough to “treat” John’s depression. We had to find the precise place to stimulate. The patient explains as follows:
They reached a point in my brain where I said to myself: I really feel back online. Depression is like a constant weight on your soul. When they touched that perfect little spot, that weight lifted.
Today, John has four stimulation electrodes in his brain and a battery implanted in his chest. What approach a little more of a world of science fiction, both frightening and amazing.
Towards a treatment for all depressions?
The current reality is that just because this patient saw very positive results doesn’t mean it applies to everyone. The experiment will be launched on other volunteers who are victims of depression. The study plans to be extended to a total of 12 patients.
Even if it works, the method is impractical and has an obvious risk of complication. Especially since in the world, there are approximately 300 million people diagnosed with depression. More than 800,000 people commit suicide each year from the causes of this disease. The numbers are so high that it is hard to imagine being able to treat so many patients with such an intrusive method.
Once scientists have succeeded in making this method universal, the procedure will then have to be greatly simplified for large-scale deployment. This still leaves hope for the future.
