Abstract
Major depression is one of the leading causes of disability worldwide since it is often accompanied by high rates of resistance to treatment. Up to 40% of patients do not remit after two adequate pharmacological tryouts (as indicated by STAR *D study). Poor efficacy of drugs for treatment-resistant depression (TRD) has prompted investigation of alternative treatment strategies. Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) involves the high-frequency electrical stimulation of stereotaxically implanted electrodes in certain brain regions. Various target areas have been examined for DBS to modulate cortico-limbic circuits, including the anterior limb in the internal capsule, the ventral capsule / ventral striatum (VC/VS), the nucleus accumbens (NAc), and the subgenual cingulate gyrus (SCG, Cg25). DBS for treatment-resistant depression is showing promising results in the few studies published to date, and could potentially open new therapeutic opportunities as an effective long-term treatment strategy with low adverse effects for such a chronic, refractory population. © 2012 Bentham Science Publishers.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 175-182 |
Journal | Current Psychiatry Reviews |
Volume | 8 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Aug 2012 |
Keywords
- DBS
- Deep brain stimulation
- Nucleus accumbens
- Subgenual cingulate gyrus
- TRD
- Treatment-resistant depression
- Ventral striatum