Mending a broken mind

The Globe & Mail rounded up the week with this final excellent article on deep brain stimulation. ‘Mending a broken mind’.

Depression, which affects one in 12 people in this country, is one of the trickiest disorders to cure. While 80 per cent of patients find effective relief with standard drug or psychotherapies, the latest numbers suggest that only 40 per cent truly feel well. Worse, experts estimate that, for 10 to 20 per cent of sufferers, nothing works.

To the shock of many, and the horror of some, the most promising treatment for intractable depression on the horizon is not a designer drug, a new form of talk or even genetic therapy. It’s electricity. The same force that powers our TVs and microwave ovens can lift the human spirit.

With deep brain stimulation (DBS), surgeons implant metal rods that aim steady pulses of electrical current at the faulty neural circuits believed to underlie mental illness. Spaghetti-thin, the rods connect to a cable that snakes invisibly down the neck to a cookie-sized, battery-operated regulator embedded just south of the collarbone

A 12 step plan for Canada 

For the past week, The Globe and Mail has delved into the plight of the mentally ill and their family members. Today,  it outlines a dozen recommendations to create a basis for the comprehensive system that is so desperately needed. 12 step plan for Canada

 

 

 

Source: The Globe & Mail