Amazing medical progress .. scientists treat a patient with "severe depression" by implanting electrical implants in the brain

A woman with severe depression recovered after treating her using an experimental stroke in a "amazing" progress that gives hope to those who suffer from intractable mental and neurological diseases.

The device works by detecting the patterns of brain activity associated with depression and cutting them automatically, using small impulses of electrical stimulation that is deeply connected inside the brain.

Sarah, 36, said that the treatment brought her back to a "life worth living", which allowed her to laugh at the first time in five years..

Although the treatment has been tested on only one patient -it will be appropriate only for those who suffer from severe disease -success is seen as very important.

The Guardian newspaper said in a report that "the first evidence that the activity of the brain under the symptoms of the disease can be discovered, and it appears that these brain circuits can be pushed again to a health condition, even in the patient who was not fine for years.".

"We were unable to do this type of personal treatment in psychiatry..This success itself is amazing in our knowledge of the brain's function that lies behind the disease..

Between 10% and 30% of people with depression do not respond to at least two drug remedies, equivalent to about 2.7 million people in the United Kingdom.

During the past two decades, the deep stimulation of the brain (DBS) has been used to treat tens of thousands of patients with Parkinson's disease and epilepsy, however many depression experiments ended with disappointment.

The main challenge is that the brain does not seem to have one "depression" and can play several interconnected areas and can vary among people.

"We have started to identify some of the complications that have how to organize the mood in the brain as a network," said Professor Edward Chang of the University of California San Francisco, who treated Sarah..

In an initial stage of a week, a temporary brain implant recorded an activity while Sarah registered her mood regularly on a tablet, the machine learning algorithm was used to determine stimulating patterns of activity in the tonsils area associated with the lowest Sarah points.

Through experience and error, scientists have identified a brain region closely related to the disease, which is the abdominal scheme, as it seems that a small dose of electricity has an immediate and deep effect.

"When I received electrical stimulation for the first time, I felt a great deal of joy and my depression was like a nightmare for a moment. I laughed loudly. It is the first time that I laughed or smiled spontaneously five years ago.".

In the second round of minor surgery, a permanent device was planted with a small battery unit integrated in its skull to discover the activity of "expecting depression" in the neurotransmitter and automatically motivated to the abdominal plan..

This happens about 300 times every day, which is equivalent to about 30 minutes of stimulation, and Sarah said that the electrical pulse is not accompanied by any feeling other than a hidden feeling of vigilance and positivity.

"The idea that we can treat symptoms at the present time when they appear, is a completely new way to treat the most difficult depression in treatment," said..

The cost of the device is about 35,000 dollars, which is a modified version of a device that is usually used to treat epilepsy..