Deep Brain Stimulation

Deep Brain Stimulation has been shown to effectively treat various diseases and disorders ranging from Parkinson’s disease, to OCD, anorexia, substance abuse, Tourette’s syndrome and major depressive disorder (MDD). This occurs through an invasive surgery where an electrode is placed near a particular region of interest for the disorder and is set to release a determined electrical current to a specific part of the brain. One reason that DBS has been suggested for the use of various treatment resistant disorders, the development of neuromodulation and other imaging studies not only provide controlled studies, which present an option of therapy that can be adjusted and reversed as needed and greater detail to isolate various pathways these disorders act on. Although MDD is complex and interacts with many different neural networks, the main brain area that is currently targeted for stimulation by neurosurgeons is subgenual cingulate cortex Area 25 (Cg25). Aside from being located in an area of the brain that is dense with other neuropathways such as the limbic system, (which controls appetite sleep and circadian rhythm), Cg25 is liked to self-esteem, decision making, and reward-based thoughts and moral decision making. …show more content…
Outside of these surgical mistakes (which while rare can occur), the general efficacy and safety of this therapy is too vague and poorly understood to begin taking this study as more than a last step. In a review of all of 22 published studies that test DBS for depression, only three had both a treatment and control group. Partnering this with the fact that damage in the Cg25 is associate with frontal lobe damage and poor impulse control, a clearer picture where we may see DBS as a more dangerous