New Buzz on Brain Stimulation for Depression
From: IEEE Spectrum - 04/18/2017
By: Eliza Strickland

Treatments that target specific neural circuits provide better results

Deed Brain Stimulation (DBS), which involves brain surgery for the
implantation of electrodes and then constant pulses of stimulation to
maintain its effects, may sound like a radically experimental treatment to
administer to people suffering from depression. But it’s based on a
successful DBS treatment for Parkinson's disease that improves patients’
tremors and other motor symptoms; about 150,000 Parkinson's patients around
the world have received an implant. For depression, much research and debate
has centered on finding the proper target for stimulation.

Read the entire article and view a video (0:24) at:
http://spectrum.ieee.org/the-human-os/biomedical/devices/treating-depression-with-deep-brain-stimulation-worksmost-of-the-time

Links:
Helen Mayberg
http://www.psychiatry.emory.edu/faculty/mayberg_helen.html

A connectomic approach for subcallosal cingulate deep brain stimulation
  surgery: prospective targeting in treatment-resistant depression
https://www.nature.com/mp/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/mp201759a.html

Defining Critical White Matter Pathways Mediating Successful Subcallosal
  Cingulate Deep Brain Stimulation for Treatment-Resistant Depression
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4487804

Deep brain stimulation to the medial forebrain bundle for depression -
  long-term outcomes and a novel data analysis strategy
http://www.brainstimjrnl.com/article/S1935-861X(17)30603-4/abstract

Related:
Treating Depression With tDCS: Startup Ybrain Aims for the Mainstream
http://spectrum.ieee.org/the-human-os/biomedical/devices/treating-depression-with-tdcs-startup-ybrain-aims-for-the-mainstream

New Neurological Map Could Be Key To Psychiatric Brain Stimulation Treatments
http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/biomedical/devices/which-brain-stimulation-treatment-works-best