Latest news with #BrainStimulation
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Scientists Say Shock Collar-Like Device Can Treat PTSD
Using a device that vaguely functions like a shock collar, researchers say they have found a promising way to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Neuroscientists at the University of Texas at Dallas and Baylor have developed a tiny chip that, when fitted inside a soft collar and placed just over the vagus nerve — a brain stem cluster that controls bodily functions like heart rate, digestion, immunity, and mood — elicits mild electric impulses that can help ease PTSD symptoms. The underlying concept behind vagus nerve stimulation, or VNS, is intriguing. Scientists believe that stimulating the nerve can help one's brain adapt and change on a neurological level. For years now, VNS has been used to treat everything from epilepsy and depression to sleep deprivation and tinnitus. Today, there are even handheld VNS devices on the market that allow people to mildly zap their brains at home. This new experimental treatment, however, diverges from prior VNS applications because it not only involves hyper-targeted nerve stimulation, but also works in tandem with a traditional talk therapy method known as "prolonged exposure therapy" or PET, in which PTSD survivors confront their traumatic memories in hopes of getting past them. In phase 1 trials, the Texan neurological researchers had nine patients complete a total of 12 sessions involving both vagus nerve stimulation and prolonged exposure therapy. After those sessions concluded, the patients went to four check-ins over a period of six months — and remarkably, all of their PTSD symptoms were gone by the end. In the school's press release, UT Dallas neuroscience professor and study leader Michael Kilgard said the results were "very promising" — despite a very small sample size. "In a trial like this, some subjects usually do get better, but rarely do they lose their PTSD diagnosis," Kilgard, who also co-authored a recent paper on the trial for the journal Brain Stimulation, said. "Typically, the majority will have this diagnosis for the rest of their lives. In this case, we had 100 percent loss of diagnosis." This advance in PTSD treatment could, according to Baylor clinical psychologist and paper coauthor Mark Powers, completely change the game. A veteran VNS researcher, Powers has seen the technology "dramatically" change his work on psychological trauma — and this latest study drives home how revolutionary it can be. "Our gold-standard treatments for PTSD have about an 85 percent response rate, with 40 percent no longer having their diagnosis, and a 20 percent dropout rate," the psychologist said. "Soon we could have the option of VNS for people who don't get better with cognitive behavioral therapy alone." More on brains: Scientists Scanned the Brains of Authoritarians and Found Something Weird
Yahoo
19-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Vagus Nerve Stimulation Has Lasting Effects in People With Severe Depression
Stimulating either of a pair of crucial nerves that carry messages from the brain to several major organs could be an effective way to treat people with severe depression. An international team of researchers conducted a clinical trial on 493 adults whose major depression hadn't previously responded to treatment. Participants were fitted with a device capable of stimulating one of their vagus nerves, which was then activated in half the group to transmit signals to areas of their brain that regulate moods. Assessments were carried out for roughly ten months, after which participants who received the stimulation treatment showed improvements in their depressive symptoms, in their quality of life, and in their ability to carry out the daily tasks of everyday life. "On average, each patient had already tried 13 treatments that failed to help them before they enrolled in the trial, and they had spent more than half of their lives sick with depression," says Charles Conway, a professor of psychiatry at Washington University in St Louis. "But despite that super-high level of sustained illness, we still see statistically significant, measurable improvements in depressive symptoms, quality of life and functional outcomes." While VNS has shown promise for treating depression before, evidence of its success hasn't always been clear cut, leaving treatment difficult to afford for many in the US on insurance cover. There are some reasons to be cautious. Based on the study's primary measure of depressive symptoms, the Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS), there were no differences between the treatment and non-treatment groups. Very few participants from either group reported a full remission in their depression, and it's also worth noting the study was partly funded and supported by LivaNova USA, which manufactures a VNS therapy system for patients. Even with those caveats in mind though, the study's results are promising, particularly when it comes to helping people escape the mental paralysis that can come along with major depression. "What's really important here is that patients themselves were reporting that their lives were improving," says Conway. "They're saying they are seeing meaningful improvements in their ability to function and live their lives." Up to 30 percent of those with severe depression fail to benefit from standard antidepressants, with their mental health problems compounded by an increased risk of suicide, hospitalization, and disability. The same clinical trial is being used to see if VNS can make a difference for people with bipolar too. In addition, the researchers want to continue the trial for another four years, and see if the benefits are particularly noticeable in certain groups of people. "The nice thing about vagus nerve stimulation, we know from other studies, is that when the patient responds, the effects usually stick," says Conway. The research has been published in two papers in Brain Stimulation, here and here. An earlier version of this article was published in January 2025. Weight Gain Might Be Linked to 'Lifestyle Instability', Not Just Calories Up to 13% of Dementia Cases May Actually Be a Misdiagnosed Treatable Condition Study on Mice Suggests Surprising Link Between Nose-Picking And Alzheimer's
