Wellness Wednesday: Brain Stimulation Used As Treatment For Depression

Researchers have begun using a form of deep brain stimulation to treat the most severe forms of depression.

The experimental treatment, researchers say, is comparable to a pacemaker for the brain.

One woman suffering from depression, Emily Hollenbeck, said her condition often leaves her barely able to move.

"My family has a very long history with mental illness, depression specifically," Hollenbeck said. "My parents actually both took their lives before I was 30."

Hollenbeck said she tried everything from medication to electro-convulsive therapy, before having electrodes implanted in her brain.

"At first I was blown away, because the concept of it seems so just intense," Hollenbeck said. "Like it's brain surgery."

Hollenbeck is now one of only a few hundred people using deep brain stimulation as a treatment for depression.

Dr. Brian Kopell, who directs Mount Sinai's Center for Neuromodulation, said the treatment delivers small amounts of electrical current to the brain.

"We deliver it at 130 hertz, and it's on all the time," Kopell said.

Now receiving the treatment, Hollenbeck said she is now able to find enjoyment in everyday activities.

"Is there a café or a cool restaurant?, these things wouldn't even be on my radar with depression," Hollenbeck said. "They wouldn't even be possibilities. If I hadn't had DBS, I'm pretty sure I would not be alive today."

It is important to not however, that Hollenbeck is still taking prescribed for her depression.

According to researchers, the devices send brain date to them so they can constantly improve upon the new technology.