The technique can ease symptoms of depression, epilepsy, obsessive-compulsive disorder, headaches, chronic pain and stroke that have not responded well to other treatments, according to new and increasing research.
"Deep brain stimulation" - a surgical process that uses implanted electrodes to stimulate specific parts of the brain affected by a disorder - has already improved the lives of tens of thousands of people with motor disorders, including Parkinson's disease and tremors. The FDA approved the treatment for these conditions several years ago.
“The brain controls the body, so if you can control the brain then you can control the body,” said Dr. Roy Bakay, professor of neurosurgery at the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. Bakay was one of about 60 researchers involved in the first large, randomized Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) study on epilepsy. "The very promising results are being published in a medical journal later this year," Bakay added.
“Participants in the study who received deep brain stimulation showed a significant reduction in seizures,” Bakay said. All of the participants suffered from refractory epilepsy, a form of the condition that does not respond well to anti-seizure medications. The treatment targeted the brain's anterior thalamus, part of a limbic circuit that incorporates a lot of epileptic processes.
The two medical device companies behind the deep brain stimulation technology - Medtronic, Inc., and St. Jude Medical, Inc. - fund a large percentage of multiple ongoing DBS studies.
Further research is necessary before DBS could be considered a clinically useful treatment for treatment-resistant depression. There are also important ethical considerations, since DBS treatment first requires potentially risky brain surgery.
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