The first time I smiled in years’: brain implant offers hope to millions with severe depression
’Neural pacemaker’ resets negative thoughts
new
An artificially coloured MRI scan of the brain, which scientists are targeting with “deep stimulation”
ALAMY
Doctors have successfully treated a woman with severe depression using a groundbreaking “neural pacemaker” device that detects and resets negative brain activity.
The device can recognise the pattern of electrical activity in the brain that gives rise to depressive thoughts. It then intervenes by delivering a tiny targeted electrical pulse via an implant.
The first patient, who is 36 and asked only to be identified as Sarah, said that it had transformed her existence, returning her to “a life worth living”. “I felt tortured by suicidal thoughts every day. I was at the end of the line,” she said. “Now those thoughts still come up, but it’s just . . . poof . . . the cycle stops.”
Sarah had suffered from severe treatment-resistant depression
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