From: Michael M. Butler (butler@comp-lib.org)
Date: Thu Apr 04 2002 - 16:25:44 MST
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/430189
Visual field stimulation of the less depressed hemisphere apparently was found
helpful. Bizarre, very interesting if true. Forward this to anyone who you
think could benefit from it. Fair use, this is important news, Copyright
retained by Menisses Communication Group, please don't sue me, I'm broke.
MMB
...
Report: Depression Research Supports Dual-Brain Theory
from Mental Health Weekly
Researchers have uncovered evidence that illnesses, such as depression, are
associated with one half
of the brain and that by activating the brain's healthier other half, a
person's condition may improve. The
report appears in this month's Neuropsychiatry, Neuropsychology, and
Behavioral Neurology.
"If you activate the healthier hemisphere, you may help the person. If you
activate the hemisphere where
the troubles were, you make it worse," Fredric Schiffer, M.D., an associate
attending psychiatrist at
McLean Hospital, told MHW.
According to Schiffer, who is working with researchers at other
institutions on this research, severely
depressed patients' spirits were lifted when they received visual stimuli
primarily to the healthy left side
of the brain, and their mood improved significantly when their left
hemispheres were treated with a more
powerful form of stimulation, involving electromagnetic fields.
In a healthy person, the two parts of the brain work together in harmony;
however, in people suffering with
an illness like depression, one hemisphere may sabotage or dominate the
other.
Schiffer said this latest report supports his earlier theory developed
several years ago, which found that
each half of the healthy brain houses a separate emotional mind. At that
time, he found that he could
elicit positive emotional responses from depressed patients by restricting
their visual stimuli to one
hemisphere.
He equipped his patients with goggles that restricted their visual stimuli
to the right field of vision. He
found that the goggles directed stimuli mostly to the left hemisphere,
because signals from the right field
of vision travel primarily to the opposite side of the brain.
Schiffer's depressed patients reported feeling better when visual stimuli
was directed primarily to their
left hemisphere, which suggested their right hemispheres were functioning
abnormally. To develop a
stronger approach to stimulating the healthier left hemisphere of the
brain, Schiffer began working with
Alvaro Pascual-Leone, MD, Ph.D., a researcher at Boston's Beth Israel
Deaconess Medical Center, who
developed a method of stimulating the brain using electromagnetic fields,
called transcranial magnetic
stimulation (TMS).
Schiffer and Pascual-Leone suspected that the TMS method benefited only 50
percent of depressed
patients. They suspected that those patients were the ones whose healthy
hemispheres were being
stimulated. They embarked on an experiment to determine if those patients
could be identified in
advance by Schiffer's goggle test.
When they channeled visual stimuli primarily to the left side of 37
depressed patients for 45 seconds
and then to their right side for the same time, they found that 20 patients
reported feeling better when
stimuli were directed to the left side of the brain, suggesting it was the
healthier hemisphere. Fifteen
patients felt worse, which suggested the right half of their brain was
healthier. The patients subsequently
received a two-week course of TMS treatments only to the left hemisphere.
The patients' depression levels were tested prior to wearing the goggles
and tested again two weeks
after the last of a series of TMS treatments using a standard measure,
called the Hamilton Depression
Rating Scale (HDRS).
Under the HDRS measure, higher scores are associated with higher levels of
depression. The
researchers found that the 20 patients who felt more improvement with the
left hemisphere visual
stimulation experienced a median 42 percent reduction in HDRS. A
fifty-percent reduction is considered
remission. The average reduction for the second group of 15 patients who
felt worse was only 11
percent, which is considered below the failure mark.
Schiffer said the study could be used to fortify current TMS procedures by
predicting which individuals
with depression will most likely benefit. "In addition, this study bolsters
my dual-brain hypothesis," said
Schiffer.
Schiffer said he uses goggles with positive results in his clinical
practice and as an adjunct to
psychotherapy. He said he intends to take his approach a step further by
using functional MRI to study
how the brain changes with goggle use. Schiffer said the functional image
will help them determine if the
goggle activates one hemisphere more than the other.
Call for Applications Applicants Sought for Leadership Program
The International Center for Health Leadership Development is accepting
applications for the Health
Partners Fellows Class of 2002 to 2004. The Health Partners Fellowship is a
two-year leadership
development program that seeks to prepare a diversity of leaders capable of
and committed to creating
organizational collaborations between communities and academic institutions
to improve health.
Five week-long seminars are held each year to strengthen collaborative
leadership skills. For more
information visit www.uic.edu/sph/healthleaders or call (312) 355-1087. The
application deadline is May
17, 4 p.m. (CST).
Resources SAMHSA Offers Guide on Screening for MI
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has
released Screening for
Mental Illness in Nursing Facility Applicants: Understanding Federal
Requirements. The new report is
intended to help state and local authorities and nursing facilities
understand their responsibilities for
ensuring proper admission and treatment of individuals with mental illness
applying to and residing in
nursing facilities.
The report covers Preadmission Screening and Resident Review (PASRR) policy
and is based on a
review and comparison of current law, regulations and state guidance. The
report is published by
SAMHSA's Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS)and can be downloaded from
www.mentalhealth.org/cmhs/ManagedCare/pubs.asp.
Mental Health Weekly 12(11):5-6, 2002. © 2002 Manisses Communications
Group, Inc
--
butler a t comp - lib . o r g
I am not here to have an argument. I am here as part of a civilization.
Sometimes I forget.
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