Posted by SLS on January 25, 2011, at 23:59:58
Another idea comes to fruition.
http://www.nerve.com/news/current-events/woman-cured-of-clinical-depression-by-revolutionary-surgery
It took them long enough. DBS works, in part, by flooding a pathologically overactive circuit with exogenous electric currents that disrupt their function by reducing the propogation of action potentials (nerve firings). One region of the brain that has demonstrated overactivity in depression is the subgenual cingulate Brodman's Area 25. To brag just a little, I would like to say that I came up with this same idea a few years ago when it seemed like common sense to investigate stereotactic tissue ablation in the overactive areas of the brain responsible for depression. It was the breakthrough work of Helen S. Mayberg, M.D and others who first identified these overactive brain regions. I just figured that a precise application of tissue ablation in these areas would serve to provide the same therapeutic benefits as DBS.
- Scott
Some see things as they are and ask why.
I dream of things that never were and ask why not.
poster:SLS
thread:977989
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20110115/msgs/977989.html