When the natural pacemaker of the heart, the sinoatrial node, that tells the heart when to beat, knocks off for some reason, the heart will start beating chaotically because there is nothing to regulate the beats. This is where an artificial pacemaker helps by regulating the heartbeat with its electrical impulses. This is a boon for a heart that is out of whack.

Once you understand how a pacemaker helps the heart, you can imagine a scenario where a pacemaker jolts our brain too, using electrical impulses.

Researchers have come up with strong evidence that a device similar to the pacemaker can jolt the brain circuits related to moods and may have the potential to ease deep depression, for which there is no other treatment as of now.

This astonishing breakthrough is already being hailed as a brave new use of existing technology. Researchers presented evidence at the American Association of Neurological Surgeons’ annual meeting, that deep brain stimulation has the potential to improve depression as well as obsessive-compulsive disorder.

According to Dr. Ali Rezai, Director of the Center for Neurological Restoration at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, “Depression is a physiological disorder, and basically we are regulating the abnormal signals to brain causing the depression.”

This research was conducted by Dr. Rezai along with a few scientists from Butler Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Deep brain stimulation was used on 17 patients that were suffering from severe depression, over a 12 month period. At the end of 12 months, these patients showed a 50% decrease in depressive symptoms. When asked how they felt, they reported a far better ability to function, improvement in short-term memory and an overall improvement in the quality of life. (more…)