io9: Depression

Depressed? Just Magnetize Your Brain Waves, Says FDA

Nivair H. Gabriel — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 12:48:55 PDT

Proxac, Paxil, Zoloft, Celexa: Whether you're clinically depressed or not, you probably know all of those medications by name. But now you can replace them all with magnets. The Food and Drug Administration in the US has just approved a new option for the depressed and medication-weary: Transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS. Its jingle could be, "Cheaper than shock therapy, less frightening than electrode implants!"

The TMS device that's been approved is called the NeuroStar, manufactured by Neuronetics Inc. Physicians use it by first finding a patient's motor control region — they hold a wire coil, or basic inductor, around a patient's head, and then send a current through the coil in order to induce a magnetic field. This magnetic field causes an opposite current to flow in the brain, stimulating electrical activity in its cells and creating a physical response in the body. If the patient's motor control region is "zapped" in this way, her arm might suddenly jerk.

Using the location of the motor control region as a guide, psychiatrists then move the NeuroStar to find a patient's prefrontal cortex — where it is believed most mood problems arise. Over the span of six weeks, a patient receives thousands of magnetic pulses in 40-minute treatments that occur five times a week. In the FDA's study, the biggest complaint patients had was about headaches; unlike shock therapy, TMS doesn't seem to carry the risk of memory loss, and it doesn't induce seizures. Its overall advantage over antidepressants, however, is still up in the air.

Lauran Neergaard of the Associated Press reports on the study's success:

About 24 percent who got TMS scored significantly better on standard depression measures after six weeks, compared with 12 percent who got the sham, says [NeuroStar study leader Philip] Janicak. That's about as well as patients respond to a single antidepressant, he said.

Neergaard also reported that one in five patients suffering from depression are treatment-resistant, meaning that they've tried at least two courses of antidepressant medication without adequate results. The FDA's test of TMS didn't use those severely treatment-resistant patients; instead, it focused on 164 patients who had undergone just one unsuccessful course with an antidepressant. And since Neergaard also pointed out that the FDA's was "a study fraught with statistical questions that concerned the agency's own scientific advisers," I'd advise you to wait a few months — like, say, until the NIH has given its two cents in an independent followup study — before strapping any wire coils to your head.

Magnet Approved to Treat Depression [Discovery News]

Image from Getty Images via Discovery.

Will the Neo-Depression Create a Drug Epidemic?

Annalee Newitz — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 17:45:00 PDT

Many economic crisis periods in the U.S. have spawned drug epidemics. During the late-nineteenth century "long depression" or "crisis," the use of opium reached epidemic proportions, and a few decades later the innovation of intravenous injection made heroin the drug of choice among 1930s Depression-era junkies. Heroin made a comeback during the 1973 Oil Crisis, while cocaine and crack use spiked directly after the early 1980s Recession. Meth was the drug of choice during the early 1990s recession, and we're sure to get another dose as the Neo-Depression of the early twenty-first century marches on. We've got some ideas about what drug it might be — and you can offer your opinion in our poll below.

A Virtual Sex Game That Makes You Crave Fresh Milk, Then Kills You

Charlie Jane Anders — Mon, 19 May 2008 09:00:00 PDT

Don't panic! Yes, there's no new Battlestar Galactica, Lost, Doctor Who or Spectacular Spider-Man this week. (And UK viewers are without new Who as well.) But we'll get through this somehow. I promise. There are some science documentaries, some cool movies — including a super-weird thriller about a computer programmer who gets ensnared in a freaky conspiracy involving empty packages, a robot head, and a virtual reality sex game. Television hasn't abandoned you yet.

Tonight

The History Channel is re-running a special called Star Wars Tech at 8 PM.

Take a look at the technology shown throughout the six Star Wars films and examine their viability through the eyes of cold hard science. Could a Death Star really be built? Can you build an army of clones? What is 3-D imaging, and where can you get a Light Saber? Travel to a galaxy far, far away to answer all of these questions and more.

Tuesday

There's a new Nova on PBS: "Lord Of The Ants." Which makes me think of Michael Flatley and a bunch of ants in spangly tops clogging really quickly to some celtic folk-rock. But it's actually about the Mofu people of Cameroon, and their "unlikely alliance" with giant killer ants. Plus biologist E.O. Wilson's theories about ants. Check your local listings for times.

If you're ditching work, you have to choose between two movies, both
airing at 10 AM: Not Of This Earth on Sci Fi and Starship Troopers on TBS. What will you do? You may have to go to the office just to avoid the dilemma.

Also, Harrison Ford is on Letterman talking up the new Indiana Jones movie. Hopefully he'll look a little less embarrassed than he did on Good Morning America last Friday. Lost's Matthew Fox is also on Jimmy Kimmel Live, where he will probably try not to talk about Speed Racer.

Wednesday

PBS has a two-hour special called Depression: Out Of The Shadows, which I'm expecting to delve into some pretty science fictional themes, including the widespread use of brain-altering drugs by the population. Plus brain scans, and maybe electro-shock therapy. But yes, it will be somewhat depressing and feature wailing music. Here's a trailer:

If you're that rare person who A) cares about Lost and B) hasn't been keeping up with Lost, ABC is showing two recent episodes at 8: "Something Nice Back Home" and "Cabin Fever." And ABC Family is showing the 1998 U.S. version of Godzilla at 7 PM. It's got Matthew Broderick — how bad can it be?

And Harrison Ford continues his talk-show sweep, hitting Conan O'Brien.

Thursday

The History Channel has another new Mega Disasters, "Volcanic Winter," at 9 PM. Here's the damage:

The largest volcanic eruption of the past two million years occurred on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, 75,000 years ago. The impact from the super volcano Toba decimated the local habitat, but gas, ash and debris from Toba made their way around the planet and formed a shield in the atmosphere that deflected the sun's warming rays. Temperatures plummeted and the planet was thrown into a volcanic winter and may have even pushed the planet into an ice age. 3-D computer animation will recreate the storm and unveil how this one volcano could have brought humanity to the edge of extinction.

Also, the CW has a Smallville rerun, "Bizarro," at 8 PM.

AMC is showing science fiction movies pretty much all day, with Beneath The Planet Of The Apes at 9:15, The Lost World (the 1960 movie about dinosaurs and hot-pink dresses) at 11:15, The Thing at 1:15, The Day The Earth Stood Still at 3:30, Planet of the Apes at 5:30 and Jurassic Park at 8.

At 7:15, TCM has a documentary, Spielberg On Spielberg, followed by Close Encounters of the Third Kind at 9. And at 10 AM, TBS has Batman and Robin — which I think you guys voted the worst science fiction movie sequel of all time.

Guess who's on Regis And Kelly? Harrison Ford! Somebody is really nervous about whether people will come out to see Indiana Jones.

Friday

Why is the Sci Fi Channel taking a week off from its unstoppable Friday night block? I don't know, but they are. Instead, they're showing their usual diet of crappy movies: Meltdown: Days Of Destruction, Solar Attack, Scorcher, Fire Serpent... Aaaaa!

But fear not. IFC is showing the award-winning Icelandic film Paranoia 1.0, otherwise known as One Point Oh, starring Jeremy Sisto, Deborah Kara Unger and Lance Henriksen. A young computer programmer named Simon starts receiving weird empty packages in his apartment. He investigates, and discovers that stuff going on in his building includes an artificially intelligent robot head named Adam, a virtual reality sex game, and an evil company that may be conspiring against him. Simon's grip on reality gets more and more tenuous, and his craving for fresh milk increases. Creepy! That's at 9 PM.

Harrison Ford is on The View, and this time he's got Karen Allen (Marion Ravenwood) with him. That could actually be sort of interesting. And Battlestar Galactica's Tricia Helfer is on The Late Show With Craig Ferguson.

At 12:20 Saturday morning, Cinemax has a movie with the intriguing title of Super Ninja Bikini Babes. You pretty much know, after reading that title, whether this is your type of movie. Apparently a coed discovers an alternate universe. A universe... of bikinis.

Saturday

Both Spectacular Spider-Man episodes on The CW starting at 9:30 are reruns. Sorry. And so is this week's Ben 10: Alien Force on the Cartoon Network.

But at least there's a new Transformers: Animated: "Rise Of The Constructicons." Finally, we're getting somewhere. A couple of construction vehicles get brought to life by the Allspark. Bulkhead makes friends with them, but the Decepticons want them to help with a new construction project. (It's a patio, I bet.) That's at 10:30 on the Cartoon Network. Also new (to Americans) is an episode of French cartoon Robotboy at 11:30 on Cartoon.

Sick of Harrison Ford yet? A&E is re-running his Biography episode at 7 AM, followed by Shia LaBoeuf's at 8 AM.

And there's a rerun of another Star Wars documentary, Star Wars: Empire Of Dreams, on A&E at 11 AM. It's followed by Sphere and Alien: Resurrection.

Sunday

Spike has the original Predator, with Arnold Schwartzenegger versus an invisible hunter-killer alien, at 3:30 PM. FX is showing League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen at 5 PM, if you're feeling masochistic.

At least next week, there'll be stuff again. Lost will have its two-hour season finale, and Battlestar Galactica will be back. And A&E will be showing its four-hour Andromeda Strain miniseries on Monday and Tuesday nights at 9. Hang in there.

The Data Is In: Brain Implants Can Make You Happy

Annalee Newitz — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 11:34:03 PDT

For over a decade researchers have been treating many different ailments, including depression, with electrodes lodged deep in the brain. Devices like this Soletra brain implant deliver electrical impulses to a targeted brain region, essentially creating artificial activity in an area that the brain won't activate on its own. While there have been anecdotal reports that brain implants can help people with depression or OCD, now there is solid proof. A long-range study being presented at the upcoming meeting of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons demonstrates how patients, over a 10-year period with brain implants, gained increasing control over their moods and obsessive behaviors.

Medgadget has the news:

All of the studies being presented used the Medtronic DBS system to stimulate a target within the brain called the ventral anterior limb of the internal capsule/ventral striatum (VC/VS), which is a central node in the neural circuits that regulate mood and anxiety.

"The data we are presenting on 43 patients is the result of more than 10 years of work across multiple institutions worldwide. These data represent the largest number and the longest evaluation of patients with psychiatric disorders who have undergone DBS implants, including some with long-term follow up," said [Cleveland Clinic neurosurgeon] Dr. Ali Rezai, who represented an international working group of physicians studying DBS therapy for treatment resistant OCD and depression. "While OCD and depression treatment with DBS require additional clinical evaluation research, our early open-label experience to date is encouraging and indicates that DBS may help severely disabled and suffering patients who have exhausted other treatment options."

I know it sounds selfish of me when there are so many people who need these implants to feel better, but I'm still waiting for a brain implant that's designed for enhancement. Kind of like implanted Provigil or something. Or maybe an orgasm implant, instant orgasms to pass the time? I'm just saying.

Deep Brain Stimulation Useful for Severe Depression and OCD [Medgadget]

Will We Drug Soldiers to Make Them Depressed?

Annalee Newitz — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 07:30:10 PST

Will soldiers of the future be given serotonin depressors to make them depressed and therefore fearless? A new study released Friday shows that people with a low level of serotonin do not "reflexively avoid" bad situations, and are more likely to explore risky and dangerous places. This is a sorry state in everyday life, but might be desirable if you're a soldier and need to venture into spots most people would steer clear of. It's very possible the next "super soldier" drug won't give you superstrength, but just a megadose of depression.

For people who aren't in the soldiering life, the study offers a different insight: Being depressed makes you likely to seek out situations that will depress you more. Because you've become less risk-averse, you're more likely to go down a dark alley that people with higher levels of serotonin would avoid. And if you got beaten up in that dark alley, the resulting compounded depression might make you do something even riskier next time.

Taking a serotonin reuptake inhibitor like Prozac, which keeps more serotonin circulating in your brain, actually causes you to avoid bad situations as well as evening out your mood.

Seratonin, Inhibition, and Negative Mood [PLoS Computational Biology]