From: William John (williamweb@earthlink.net)
Date: Thu Dec 16 1999 - 17:02:32 MST
I thought this was really interesting since I read an article in Wired
Magazine about a neuroscientist trying to control mood by electromagnetic
stimulation of various spots in the prefrontal lobes at various frequencies
to affect mood. The guy, Michael Persinger, particularly thinks he has
found "the God spot" that generates mystical/ visionary/ out-of-body/
hallucinogenic experiences at will. (Wired, Nov., 1999 page 308-313)or "This
Is Your Brain on God" at:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/7.11/persinger.html
"Brain Device May Fight Depression" at:
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2562637816-db6
Their web site is (logically:
http://www.cyberonics.com/
05:06 PM ET 12/15/99
Brain Device May Fight Depression
By LAURAN NEERGAARD=
AP Medical Writer=
WASHINGTON (AP) _ The first small study where doctors implanted
a pacemaker-like device in the brain helped lift the moods of about
40 percent of severely depressed patients, doctors reported
Wednesday.
The 30-patient pilot study does not prove this unusual
brain-stimulating treatment really helps depression, researchers
cautioned.
But sufferers of severe depression have clamored to try the
experimental treatment since The Associated Press disclosed the
preliminary research in October. The pacemaker's manufacturer,
Cyberonics Inc., received several hundred phone calls from
patients.
Researchers reported Wednesday on an Internet version of the
medical journal Biological Psychiatry that this ``vagus nerve
stimulation'' seemed to help 40 percent of study participants.
Joyce Daniels of Charleston, S.C., suffered severe depression
for the past five years. Medications and even electric shock
therapy failed.
``Sometimes I'd cry for a week. ... I got to a place where I'd
just sit on the end of the couch all day long,'' she said.
She had the experimental brain stimulator implanted in March,
and says she gradually began improving.
``It's not like you put it in and wake up the next day and feel
the whole world's changed,'' Daniels said. But around October, she
says she felt largely recovered.
``The last five years I was walking through this fog, where
there's nothing really clear to me in my mind, and all of a sudden
I got up one morning _ my mind has cleared up.''
The stimulator is essentially a brain pacemaker.
A generator the size of a pocket watch is implanted into the
chest. Wires snake up the neck to the vagus nerve, which runs from
the neck into a brain region thought important for regulating mood.
Every few minutes, the stimulating sends tiny electric shocks to
that nerve and thus on to the brain.
The stimulator already is sold as a treatment for epilepsy.
For depression, it is ``extremely encouraging as a potential
treatment,'' but more study is needed to prove the effect, said the
lead investigator, Dr. John Rush of the University of Texas
Southwestern Medical Center.
Several study participants took antidepressants along with the
brain stimulator, and it is possible the implant somehow helps
medicine work better, said co-researcher Dr. Lauren Marangell of
the Baylor College of Medicine.
A 200-patient study scheduled to begin next summer will offer a
better test. Doctors are debating implanting all the patients with
a stimulator, but not immediately turning on all the implants,
hoping to prove any relief is not just a placebo effect.
During the 30-second zaps, the implant can cause temporary
hoarseness in about 30 percent to 40 percent of patients. Rush said
few were bothered by the little voice breaks, but said one patient
who sang in her church choir did turn off the stimulator while
singing.
___
For information on enrolling in next summer's study, call
Cyberonics at 1-800-332-1375, ext. 690.
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