Treating Depression With Electrodes Inside the Brain 237
cowtamer writes "CNN has a writeup on a method of treating depression with implanted electrodes. If this works, we may be seeing a lot more of this type of technology in the future. '[The patients] were lightly sedated when the holes were drilled and the electrodes implanted, but they were awake to describe what they experienced. Several patients reported profound changes just minutes after the stimulator was turned on. One said the room suddenly seemed brighter and colors were more intense. Another described heightened feelings of connectedness and a disappearance of the void.' While I haven't looked into any of the academic literature on this, it seems that yet another Larry Niven Prediction has come true!"
Well, it's not ECT! (Score:4, Insightful)
Though, I worry about the "drive by" hackings [medgadget.com].
Electrodes in the brain? Is this 1882? (Score:2)
Why not just use a drug that's known to work....like MDMA (aka ecstasy), to treat these people?
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Defining the problem is a first step.
You are correct in your fist posit. It is not race.
It is a subculture matter, and I see no skinheads or Nazis standing around our thread so we can assume its not a race matter.
Hate comes from fear and we can see from the above post that the A.C. fears both gangsta culture and liberal culture.
Who can dispell the fear?
If fear comes from ignorace, enlighten him.
Find his sources, ask for citations to his fears.
Reframe the problem in a more realistic light.
Darkness is dispell
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"Hold on to your butts."
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Don't laugh, it's UNIX....
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It seems somewhere between that and slapping the side of the TV a few times hoping to get better vertical hold.
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The way the premises worked was it was observed that epileptics had a lower incidence of schizophrenia,and epileptics had seizures. So they tried electrically induced seizures as a treatment for schizophrenia and it didn't work. Well it didn't work as a treatment, but it was a very strong negative reinforcement for inappropriate behavior. Eventually it was discovered through serendipity that it was effective for severe depression, that was about the time public opinion about ECT was it was equivalent to med
Re:Well, it's not ECT! (Score:4, Informative)
There's an excellent TED talk about this.
I believe this is it... my apologies if someone already brought it up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEZrAGdZ1i8 [youtube.com]
A great band-aid solution (Score:5, Funny)
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A band-aid solution? After that comment, I'll presume that you aren't a depression sufferer of 40 years and multiple failed suicide attempts.
Re:A great band-aid solution (Score:4, Funny)
A band-aid solution? After that comment, I'll presume that you aren't a depression sufferer of 40 years and multiple failed suicide attempts.
Well, let's be honest. It would only take one successful attempt and you wouldn't have 40 years of depression.
Re:A great band-aid solution (Score:5, Insightful)
A band-aid solution? After that comment, I'll presume that you aren't a depression sufferer of 40 years and multiple failed suicide attempts.
Well, let's be honest. It would only take one successful attempt and you wouldn't have 40 years of depression.
As someone afflicted with bipolar disorder, I got a nice chuckle out of that comment. It's true, suicide is very easy if you don't care about having an open casket or being in pain before you pass. I don't think anyone ever actually wants to die though, in my experience it's a means to an end. Going through these turbulent states is literally hellish torture; one resorts to suicide as a way to end that. I'd hazard to guess that I have PTSD just from that torture, and the act of trying to kill yourself is just as traumatizing. Gabbing a shank into your vain so you can bleed out to end the torture is not something most people will ever experience or relate with. I cried for hours because I thought I was never going to see my family or friends again, and the burden I would cause them in the aftermath; the pain was too much to bare though. In retrospect, I'm thankful that the nurse made rounds sooner than expected, because Lithium was able to calm the storm a few days after that. I had not been on Lithium prior to that, I have to say it's a truly remarkable drug... err.. element.
Re:A great band-aid solution (Score:5, Informative)
A band-aid solution? After that comment, I'll presume that you aren't a depression sufferer of 40 years and multiple failed suicide attempts.
Well, let's be honest. It would only take one successful attempt and you wouldn't have 40 years of depression.
As someone afflicted with bipolar disorder, I got a nice chuckle out of that comment. It's true, suicide is very easy if you don't care about having an open casket or being in pain before you pass. Going through these turbulent states is literally hellish torture; one resorts to suicide as a way to end that.
1) Watch the BBC documentary: How to Kill a Human Being (2008)
a. There are many sources of the same information but they actually did a nice job
2) Go to a welding supply shop and rent a pressurized gas cylinder with argon or nitrogen (inert gas)
3) Go to a welding supply shop and buy a regulator (this will drop the pressure down to a usable level)
You'll feel better just knowing the option exists and you're not trapped here...
Just like computers everything has glitches; including the human body. When it comes to breathing the human body only panics when there is a build up of CO2 NOT when there is a lack of O2. If you can eliminate the CO2 and the O2 (which will convert to CO2) then the body won't panic. Breathing inert gas you'll just get tired and euphoric. Instead of pain you'll actually feel high! Eventually the lack of O2 will cause you to pass out. Everything starts to shut down. Before the brain shuts down you'll start convulsing as a last attempt to clear whatever is blocking the oxygen. When that doesn't work your brain will die.
Remember people: Don't kill yourself with helium... it is a limited resource :)
Posted non-AC so I don't get filtered out.
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I've lost several friends this way. It seems to be the preferred suicide method of talented scientists and engineers:-(
While I'm sorry for your loss, I have to say this is fucked up. You've lost MULTIPLE friends to a single suicide method?? How many people do you know who've offed themselves?
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Posting AC for reasons that will become obvious...
It's true, suicide is very easy if you don't care about having an open casket or being in pain before you pass.
No, it really isn't. Throw yourself off a tall building? From the sixth floor upwards you will reach terminal velocity, but even so you have a ~10% chance of surviving. If you survive you might be crippled and will certainly attract attention that prevents you trying again. Remember, the goal is to die.
Drugs are hit and miss and the effective ones are not easy to come by. Even if you pick the rights ones in the right doses you might throw up, and even if you
Damn euphemisms (Score:3)
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Try ecstasy. It works. I didn't have to go through 40 years of hell; I escaped in my early 20s.
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well, the description is that supposedly it's like being on shrooms 24/7 only enjoying the positive benefits.
so.. really. why the fuck not? seems much like better solution than getting your brains scrambled with a stick.
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Depression is relatively easy to cure short-term, drugs, electrodes, vacation, sky-diving, whatever. The trick is staying non-depressed when you feel trapped and unable to fix your perceived problems.
There's an old joke about why ECT wears off after 6 months... it takes that long for the patient to remember just how bad their life sucks.
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And lack of asperin causes headaches? Of course not, that doesn't justify your point. Depression can be caused by all sorts of factors. Throwing it all on one big pile and claiming that depression will go away with affection is a gross, naive oversimplification.
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Respectfully I think the Dalai Lama may have confused cause and effect. Lack if affection is considered a symptom of depression isn't it?
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Like many things with a psychological component, it's a vicious circle. In depression, there seems to be a physical component which may be the initial cause, but that feeds into a cognitive element which feeds back into the physical. There is reason to believe the cycle can be interrupted on the cognitive side, at least in some cases. However, that doesn't help the pill for everything model so it's ignored.
Essentially, in many cases, if you act happy, you can become happy.
It is likely though that some peop
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There may be reason to believe that depression can be stopped without drugs in some cases, but the drugs have the distinction of having been scientifically demonstrated to be effective whereas attempts to help those with persistent depression by cognitive methods alone do not have strong evidence nor a generally accepted treatment regime.
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The drugs do seem to work in many cases, though not as well as advertised. The current models meant to explain their action simply do not fit reality. Followup efficacy studies raise a lot of questions, particularly if the blinding in the original studies was effective. That is, the side effects are a dead givaway compared to sugar pill.
Naturally the manufacturers would like the SSRIs to be something you take for the rest of your life, but there is some suggestion that they are best used as an adjunct to co
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Unfortunately those natural substances have serious side effects.
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Unfortunately those natural substances have serious side effects.
And sticking things directly in your brain doesn't?
Whatcouldpossiblygowrong?
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Unfortunately those natural substances have serious side effects.
Yeah like persecution by the state for the "crime" of altering your consciousness in unauthorized ways.
As though your consciousness were theirs to regulate. I can understand why they regulate the roads with traffic laws -- they used tax money to build those roads and continue using tax money to maintain them. Makes sense and you can clearly see why they would have a claim there. But the inner sanctum of your consciousness?
Just because idiots who like to screw with things they haven't taken the time
Sounds nice. (Score:2)
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Re:Sounds nice. (Score:5, Funny)
Who needs health insurance? You need:
Home cures are best.
Re:Sounds nice. (Score:4, Informative)
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It's still experimental, you may be able to get in as a study patient.
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Have you considered paying for it in cash? You know, like you'd buy a car or a house or almost anything else in your life?
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Maybe gstrickler has a point. Have you considered switching careers?
If dealing drugs doesn't work, you could always try politics.
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I can see the drug dealing, but perhaps he has too much moral compass to be a successful politician.
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Fortunately, I'm American, I pay for health insurance, and I appreciate that the insurance industry doesn't just lay out $30K for everyone who "wants to try something." Actually, I think they do far too much reimbursement for expensive, unnecessary tests and procedures already.
I'm all for full coverage of appropriate treatments, but in the realm of depression treatment (and many others) there are a lot of very expensive treatments that should be saved until less invasive, less expensive things have been tr
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"Sorry, I was powered down." (Score:5, Funny)
The new all-purpose excuse.
In addition to people crossing the street while yakking in their phones, college kids texting while walking, and crazed bicyclists weaving through city traffic while sipping Red Bull, we might have to start dodging people standing on the sidewalk saying, "Charging.... charging... charging...."
It's been done. (Score:5, Funny)
I can't be the only person who remembers Stimpy's Happy Helmet.
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It is not I who am crazy.
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It is not I who am crazy.
It is I who am MAD!
Mixed feelings (Score:5, Insightful)
On the one hand, I have long suffered from depression that resists all treatment. Some days, it is literally a fight to want to live just for that day, and the only thing that keeps me from suicide is the knowledge that my friends (the few I have) and family (who have mostly rejected me altogether at this point) would blame themselves. I don't think many people understand just how devastating Depression can be -- it can literally take away everything you value in life. The worst part is the blame: the attitude that, if you just "wanted" to be different, you would be. If this treatment could actually cure my depression, I would have to "go for it".
On the other hand, I remember reading Terminal Man by Michael Chrichton, in which a similar technique was used to treat Temporal Lobe Epilepsy. The subject grew addicted to the stimulation from the computer, and literally turned into a homicidal maniac.
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He already was a maniac. The shocks would simply "shut down" the homicidal thoughts.
Unfortunately, during the surgery the doctor off handedly decided to put the electrode on a pleasure center figuring that the subject may as well be rewarded while being cured. Too bad the reverse happened - every time he thought about killing he was given a jolt to the pleasure center training him to think about killing even more. The jolts shut down the urge, but eventually he reached a point that he was being continual
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Stimulation addiction are not just fiction. It happened with some women that were given the controls and were allowed selfstimulation.
The obvious solution is to either stimulates areas that will saturate immideatly and not gain further pleasure as stimulation is cranked up. Or simply precalibrate the device for automatic operation.
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On the one hand, I have long suffered from depression that resists all treatment. Some days, it is literally a fight to want to live just for that day, and the only thing that keeps me from suicide is the knowledge that my friends (the few I have) and family (who have mostly rejected me altogether at this point) would blame themselves. I don't think many people understand just how devastating Depression can be -- it can literally take away everything you value in life. The worst part is the blame: the attitude that, if you just "wanted" to be different, you would be. If this treatment could actually cure my depression, I would have to "go for it".
Have you tried recreational drug use? Specifically, hallucinogens? From my understanding of TFA, it sounds not dissimilar to the effects of low dose LSD, mescaline or psilocybin.
I've also heard positive things about higher dose LSD use for depression, but that may require a bit more guidance and direction along with it.
Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, and I am a relatively outspoken advocate of LSD and therefore can be considered to be strongly biased. However I hope that doesn't deter you from independent
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I've been there, too.
You may have heard this already, but in case you haven't, here are some things to might want to have checked by LabCorp (or whichever laboratory you get your blood tests done thru)
(1) CD57 (Google Lyme Disease). This measures a specific subset of white blood cells that is suspected to be supressed by some chronic illnesses.
(2) check your testosterone levels, free and total, sex hormone binding globulin, luteinizing hormone, and estrogens. When these things are out of whack, you can fe
New treatment for resistant depression..that works (Score:5, Informative)
I'd probably write this in a private message, but since you've (understandably) posted as anonymous, and since others might benefit from this information, I'll post it openly. Private messages are welcome, should someone wish to contact me.
Before I continue, though, I have to ask something: I hope that those who read this will respect just how debilitatingly painful clinical depression (i.e. based on bad brain chemistry) is, and also how sensitive a topic it is, both to those who have it, and to those who don't understand it, and treat depressed people like garbage as a result. Truly, I can't imagine a more excruciating torture than having one's own brain be in constant, unbearable pain (in severe cases like mine, it goes beyond depression, into an intangible agony of the mind; and also manifests as severe, measurable physical symptoms). I honestly can't bring myself to wish such torment on any person or creature--no matter how evil. It can and does literally drive people insane, and in the face of this, I have a knowledgeable respect for those who decide that it's simply not worth living through any more such torture; those who haven't been tormented in such an ungodly way (yes, I do mean to imply theological conflict) can't even begin to understand the topic of depressive suicide, so I encourage you not to comment on it; simple kindness would be much more believable and meaningful. (I'm writing now about a possible solution, so please wait on such thoughts if you're having them.) I ask that any replies to this be respectful and not flippant/humorous. Thanks.
I've recently found an unconventional treatment that has helped my severe depression (featuring suicidal ideation), after having thought (for good reason) that nothing was going to work. First, so that you can better determine if this is something worth looking into, I'll give you an abbreviated list of things I've tried, without success. In almost every case, the medicines and treatments worked after about a month of use, then stopped working, then made my depression worse than it otherwise would have been. Notably, I also suffer from anxiety, physical pain (muscles, joints, skin), and ADD (among others). The most sensible diagnosis I've gotten is fibromyalgia, and it's reached a disabling state. (Of course, fibromyalgia is largely used as a diagnosis that really means "we have no idea what's causing all this.") Here's a list of failures, and example name brands (what DOES work is below them):
Tri-cyclic anti-depressants (Amitriptyline/Tryptomer)
SSRIs (Prozac)
Benzodiazepines (Xanax) (for anxiety)
(Atypical) antipsychotics (Abilify) (in conjunction with other meds, to enhance them)
Anticonvulsants (Lamotrigine/Lamictal) (for enhancing effects, as above)
Lithium (used to treat [type 2] bipolar disorder and mood swings)
SNRIs (Cymbalta)
NRIs (Strattera) (for ADD, and as an enhancer)
NDRIs (Bupropion/Wellbutrin) (for ADD, and as an antidepressant, and as an enhancer)
Amphetamines (Adderal; this was exceptionally bad, especially in conjunction with Wellbutrin; it caused a psychotic panic attack) (for ADD and chronic fatigue)
Azapirones (Buspirone) (for anxiety)
Electro-convulsive therapy (A.K.A. ECT)
The treatment that I finally discovered, and convinced my doctor to do some research on (i.e. look up as much info as possible) involves increasing the amount of glutamate in the brain--which is now thought to be a more "direct" influence on depression than seratonin, etc.--at least in the "tough" cases. This was discovered as a result of some doctors noticing the use of the street drug, Ketamine, for self-treatment of depression. (Ketamine has some serious/dangerous side effects, of course.) During trials, it was discovered that Ketamine (pain reliever), as well as Riluzole (used to treat Lou Gehrig's disease) and Scopolamine (for motion sickness and surgical nausea) were extremely effective in treating those with severe, "tough" cases of depression. Of the three, Scopolamine (as a transdermal
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I would be interested to hear about how doctors are administering ketamine to patients
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tirefire,
No, Scopolamine isn't the only glutamate-enhancing drug; both Ketamine and Riluzole do the same thing. My doctor and I settled on Scopolamine because its side effects are less than those of the other drugs. I understand that the Ketamine has been administered as an IV drip, but I don't know how fast or how often. The impression I got from the article and my doctor is that it wasn't very safe, the way it had to be done--which indicates to me that it's a pretty large dose, or at least large enough
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Update: I've submitted that link as a story. If anyone cares to moderate it into an accepted story, it should now be available for such. The words Ketamine, Riluzole, and Scopolamine are in the title, so it should be fairly easy to find.
Thanks again for the suggestion.
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Best of luck
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On the other hand, you qualify as a scoiopath.
Stop living in denial and get some help.
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'tdcs' is either a typo or you are some sort of really perverse acronym addict. You could at least capitalize the thing.
*Facepalms* (Score:5, Interesting)
Me thinks they are missing the point.
Aside from genetic tendencies, depression is typically a form of feedback from your environment not being 'right' for you. And I am not talking about ecosystems here.
So, while it is a scientific triumph (huzzah!) to find a temporary way to get around depression by sticking a wire in your brain, it's not one we should readily consider. Instead, we should focus on a more permanent solution, that of removing people from environments that would necessitate putting an electrode in their brains.
On a separate note, I am surprised at the number of psychs / etc. who prescribe pills in preference to telling their patients that they need to quit their job / move somewhere else. Sometimes the solution isn't a bunch of SSRIs, it's moving to another state (across country), or quitting an abusive job.
There's more than one kind of despression (Score:5, Informative)
As an obvious example, Roosevelt took Stalin more or less at face value whereas Churchill was (quite rightly) deeply suspicious of him.
If you take a non-rational depressive and move him or her to another job on the far side of the country, you will now have a rational depressive feeling even worse off because everything is new and unfamiliar. That is likely actually to increase suicide risk.
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You're missing the point that Roosevelt was ALSO a Socialist.
So what? So was Joe McCarthy [wikipedia.org]. (Seriously, he campaigned to gain public office as a Democrat in 1936.)
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The point is that FDR wanted power as all socialists do. He was blind to Stalin's flaws because he did not view Stalin's characteristics as flaws.
Joseph McCarthy got the anticommunist reputation he's remembered for in the 1950s. By that time he presumably had seen that his 1936 views were at least partly in error.
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I would suggest that he was less worried about Stalin's flaws than Churchill
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depression is typically a form of feedback from your environment not being 'right' for you.
Sure, and retarding the timing to avoid detonation is "right" for your engine, but if it's misdetecting detonation because of a faulty CPS then it's only going to cause you to lose power. See what I did there?
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You cannot tell that it's not environmental if you don't first remove that person from the scope of that environment. Mistakes are made all the time about what exactly constitutes that person's environment; for instance, you'll move to a new home and a new job, but your overbearing parents will still be calling you and telling you that you amount to nothing in life. You may laugh, but it's common enough to warrant mention.
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You cannot tell that it's not environmental if you don't first remove that person from the scope of that environment.
It's interesting you use the word "environment" because there's only one that we're discussing right now, and moving out of it is practically impossible. On the other hand, when there's no reason to believe that what you've seen in the lab (vis-a-vis the properties of CO2) isn't behaving the same way in the "environment" then you're really going to have to explain why, because extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
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Quitting jobs and moving across the country may be valid for 18 year old extroverts that feel lost in life and have a excessively padded bank account to fall back on and no real responsibilities to haunt them. For anyone else. Not so much.
Lifestyle adjustments are a lot more relevant, but the compliance for such adjustments are very low, even more so in depressed people that may feel very weak drives to do things.
Pharmaceuticals are very easy to administer, thus they are used a lot, they do however leave a
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If you don't know the disease, stop judging as if you knew it all.
A lot of people with depression have tried all conceivable ways to cure their disease. Some people found their fix, some have tried everything yet it keeps coming back or even becoming worse. If "changing environment" is really sufficient, would you think they would be willing to have their brains drilled open just for the giggles?
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As someone who has suffered from it, I'd more than most people (onlookers, quoting the DSM) about it. The major problem you run into is that the pysch professions' idea of 'changing your environment' involves men with butterfly nets and a new place quite similar, in many respects, to prison.
I'd wager a fair amount of money that if you transported many a depression sufferer to a Caribbean island, and told them they never had to go home, they'd be cured. As such, it is environmental. We need only perform this
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We should, yes. Unfortunately, there is so much inertia involved in removing the unhealthy aspects of the modern lifestyle even just to accommodate people who suffer depression now is so high that it's far more likely and easier to wire the sufferers up.
After all, if we relax enough to allow people to not fall into depression, we might have to reduce the unemployment rate and the TPS reports might be FIVE MINUTES LATE, OH NOES!!!
Sounds like a psychedelic experience (Score:5, Interesting)
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Experimental procedure is experimental.
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You're exactly right. This kind of electrical stimulation ends up overstimulating neurons and leading to a downregulation of excitatory neurotransmitter activity, much like that seen in NMDA receptor antagonists. And so it happens that at least one NMDA receptor antagonist, ketamine has remarkable antidepressive activity [medscape.com], producing relief in hard to treat patients withn a day of treatment. It also induces profound out of body experiences, and has been a popular recreational drug.
I'd suggest that learning
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Don't rejecting it simply because it's not "natural" or the procedure freaks you out.
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Yet without any of the customary safety we come to expect by using natural compounds [wikipedia.org]! Where can I sign up to have my head drilled into rather than trusting the wisdom of the ancients [wikipedia.org]?!
Linkified that for you.
Abrupt video end at 01:36? (Score:2)
I'm quite happy with my solution... (Score:4, Interesting)
That said, walking might not be a great idea if you'd lost your job, sold your car, etc. etc...
Re:I'm quite happy with my solution... (Score:5, Informative)
It's important to note that the patients discussed had severe depression which resisted other forms of treatment:
She tried a variety of treatments, including talk therapy and psychiatric medicines, but nothing worked.
St. Jude is hoping to win Food and Drug Administration approval for commercial use of DBS for treatment-resistant depression.
The summary and title could be taken to imply (incorrectly) that this treatment is aimed at depressed people in general. It's still brain surgery, you need an implanted battery, and it doesn't work on all patients.
Cool (Score:2)
Wireheads on the horizon.
Darwin at work.
Effects (Score:4, Funny)
One said the room suddenly seemed brighter and colors were more intense. Another described heightened feelings of connectedness and a disappearance of the void
LSD is cheaper, and you don't need any extra holes in your head.
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As long as you don't mind not being able to gtell further what you are seeing, hearing and feeling is real.
Electromagnetism (Score:2)
Tho more bulky, the same results could be gained from electromagnets positioned properly to create small induced currents in various parts of the brain, and be non invasive.
Niven's euphoria/depression concept oversimplified (Score:4, Interesting)
Like many of the more readable writers, certain concepts were simplified. The "droud" in Niven's books stimulated pleasure centers. Doing this is different than relieving depression. Admittedly, the brains wiring isn't following such neat little concepts, but conceptually, relieving depression so you can feel normal is very different than seeking pleasure for its own sake.
Tough choice -- trepanning or... (Score:2)
Extra Perception? (Score:2)
Dangerous (Score:2)
God is an iron (Score:2)
"If a person who indulges in gluttony is a glutton, and a person who commits a felony is a felon, then God is an iron." -Spider Robinson
This has been around for a long time (Score:2)
Re:Sci Fi has done this... (Score:4, Informative)
Yes, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Terminal_Man [wikipedia.org]
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And in the other direction as well -- The Sirens of Titan. :-)
There are lots of stories with direct brain-stimulation hooks (so to speak). All the same, I'll let Caol Ila brighten my days
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Yeah, CLI's suck. Should have been given a Mac...
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I was actually thinking of this http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/The_Wire [memory-alpha.org]
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Well, true, as long as we are counting blatantly plagiarized concepts.
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Poor attempts at humour aside...
This is very interesting. A good friend of mine left her loving husband and two children, to then commit suicide. That sort of deep unhappiness affects more than just the clinically depressed. It can affect all their family and friends in drastic ways.
If there's a way to make life liveable, then good. Hope more advancements are made.
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The kind of depression we're talking about here is anything but "normal".
If you've not experienced it yourself, you should express your gratitude for that in some other way than being all snarky.
Your condescension is neither helpful nor welcome.
Now kindly STFU.
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I think maybe OP was trying to say that humanity isn't supposed to go about life the way it does now. i.e., under a fluorescent light 40+ hours a week, then in front of a TV for another 20+, etc., and that may be the source of depression.
~S
Re:Depression is normal (Score:5, Interesting)
Maybe I took the bit about the "happy robots" other than in the spirit in which it was intended. Sometimes it's difficult for me to be completely objective about such matters, since the subject hits rather close to home, even when I'm not in one of my less happy phases.
It's also come to my notice recently that there seems to be an endless supply of online jerks who seem to think that depressives are that way by choice, or that they're just trying to look emo-hip.
Regarding the emo thing: I tend to take the emo scene with a large grain of salt. I appreciate that there are others with problems similar to mine, and many of them have it worse than I've ever had. But I don't need to see it glorified, and I don't need to broadcast to the world that it should feel sorry for me.
What I think helped to empower me was coming to the realisation that, while I can't always control how I feel, I can try to control what I do about it. And that feeling sorry for myself or expecting others to feel sorry for me negates that control.
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Decade? Try around half a century! Look up the experiments of Dr. Robert Heath who was doing this stuff since the 50's. Here is a quick Youtube video [youtube.com]
Hell, Timothy Leary was once asked whether drugs were a bad influence on young kids, and he replied, "This is nothing. In a few years, kids are going to be demanding septal electrodes."