Brain implant relieves patient’s severe depression in “landmark” US study

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US researchers have successfully relieved a patient's severe, long-term depression with an electronic implant that acts like a neural pacemaker, resetting the brain circuits associated with negative feelings.

The team at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) said the study was a landmark success" in the scientific effort to treat psychiatric disorders through carefully targeted neural electronics. The study is published in the Nature Medicine journal.

We've developed a precision medicine approach that has successfully managed our patient's treatment-resistant depression by identifying and modulating the circuit in her brain that's uniquely associated with her symptoms," said Andrew Krystal, UCSF professor of psychiatry.

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