A “pacemaker for the brain”: no treatment has helped his depression – so far

Dr Sheth said the first patient, who received the device in March 2020, “is doing remarkably well” now, maintaining a relationship and becoming a father. To test for a placebo effect, the researchers gradually stopped stimulating a region of the brain without the patient knowing when. His depression “got worse and worse,” said Dr Sheth, until he needed to be “rescued”. After restarting stimulation, it improved, suggesting that the effect “is definitely related to stimulation”.

Several months ago Sarah also needed a rescue. Shortly after entering a study phase where the device is turned off or left on for six weeks without the participant knowing which, “suicidal thoughts were back,” Sarah said. Her family tried to hospitalize her, but the hospitals were full. “Things were really bad,” Sarah said.

“She had a very serious worsening of her depression,” said Dr Scangos. She said she couldn’t reveal whether the stimulation was turned off or on, but said a technician from the appliance company was dispatched to Sarah’s home to “make an emergency change.”

Afterwards, Sarah said, she got better again.

During the year, the number of times per day Sarah’s device detected brain activity related to depression and the stimulation delivered has diminished somewhat, but remains substantial, said Dr Scangos. Still, on some days Sarah doesn’t need the maximum amount the device is set to deliver: 300 times or 30 minutes total per day. (It automatically shuts off around 6 p.m. because the evening stimulation made her too alert to sleep.)

Longer-term, more detailed data on Sarah will be released later, said the researchers, who so far have two other participants.

The device is intentionally set so that Sarah cannot feel the stimulation, but she thinks she knows this has happened because she subsequently develops a sense of “emotional distance” which maintains the negative feelings ” compartmentalized, ”she said.

Plus, “I feel alert,” she said. “I feel present. ”

This is “a very good sign,” said Dr Dougherty, who is considering using a similar approach for depression and possibly substance abuse. “The emotions are still there, but instead of sticking like mud, it trickles like water.”