Iris Cole interviews Dr. Oren Tana about depression and its treatment / Walla system
According to a recent survey, almost 30 percent of adults in the United States suffer from depression and about 17 percent of them are treated for depression.
Clinical depression (major depression disorder) is a mood disorder, the person suffering from it suffers from a very low mood for at least two weeks, during which for most or all of the day he experiences a lack of pleasure and interest in activities that previously interested him continuously.
Depression is not just a "bad mood" disease.
Other symptoms of the disease are fatigue, exhaustion, difficulties in making decisions and thinking, and a sense of self-worthlessness.
Depression also causes changes in sleeping and eating patterns, thus making it even more difficult for those suffering from it to work and function.
In some cases it may even lead to suicide.
For all these reasons it is very important to treat depression, and to relieve those who suffer from it as much as possible.
An untreated depressive episode can last for weeks and months.
Difficult events, such as the death of a relative, emotional or physical abuse, serious illnesses and injuries, increase the risk of developing depression later in life.
Over the years, many treatments have been developed to relieve those suffering from depression, including psychological therapy, drug therapy, psychedelic substances, and in severe cases - even electroconvulsive therapy, which are effective in patients who do not respond well to other treatments.
Despite all this, there are patients whose treatments fail to help them, partly because some of the treatment methods have unpleasant side effects that make it difficult for patients to persist with them.
A new study gives hope to such patients and offers a new and surprising treatment method for the treatment of depression:
electrical stimulation of the spine.
Spine/ShutterStock
The continuation of the brain
The researchers attached two electrodes to the subjects' backs, one in the middle of the spine and another on the right shoulder blade, and passed between them, through the body, in a controlled manner, a series of electric currents.
Adult subjects who were diagnosed as suffering from clinical depression and did not receive medication at the time of the study and in the month before participated in the study.
The subjects underwent an interview and filled out questionnaires in order to assess the degree of severity of depression symptoms before the treatment, then were randomly divided into two groups.
One group received the electrical stimulation three times a week for eight weeks, and the members of the other group were connected to electrodes but the system was not activated and they did not receive electrical stimulation.
Each event of electrical stimulation lasted 20 minutes and was conducted in the clinic, at the end of which the electrodes were removed until the next stimulation.
The study was conducted in a double-blind manner: both the subjects and the experimenters did not know which group they belonged to.
During the eight weeks of treatment, the subjects filled out questionnaires that examined the severity of the depression symptoms.
All the subjects filled out questionnaires every week, in which they reported the symptoms of depression.
After eight weeks of treatment, a significant improvement was found in the symptoms of depression in the subjects who received the stimulation, compared to the control group.
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The study is not without problems: it included only 19 subjects and only 14 of them persisted throughout the entire period.
The dropping out of about a third of the participants raises questions about the accessibility of the treatment.
In addition, the researchers did not examine whether the relief of depression symptoms is maintained over time.
Despite the limitations, this study has many advantages: the stimulation is not invasive, and the side effects can include skin tingling or redness, but they are much milder than the side effects of other accepted treatments.
A common side effect of electric shocks, for example, is short-term memory impairment, and side effects of medications can include changes in weight, changes in sleep patterns, and even increased suicidal tendencies.
The dangers of untreated depression outweigh the discomfort or the risk of side effects, and it is possible to reduce them by appropriate medical follow-up and accompaniment, but of course, there will be a significant advantage to treatment with milder side effects.
In addition, the system is not expensive and it is possible to develop a simple treatment that will be available and accessible.
From the body to the mind, from the mind to the body
The spine has nerve cells and long extensions of other cells, which connect the brain to the body's organs.
But what about depression?
The spinal cord is actually a direct continuation of the brain.
Among the nerve cells that pass through the spinal cord are cells that are responsible for movement.
When an area of the brain related to movement is activated, the nerve cells in the brain send electrical signals to the spinal cord, where a nerve cell related to movement, a lower motor neuron, receives the signal and stimulates a muscle using an electrical signal.
In response, the muscle contracts and a movement is created in the leg or hand, for example.
At the same time, the brain receives information about what is happening outside through information that comes from the opposite direction - from the body to the brain.
For example, receptors on the surface of the skin detect sensations of touch or temperature changes and convert the stimulus into an electrical signal that travels up the spinal cord to the brain.
Previous studies have shown that the signals sent from the body to the brain - for example body temperature, hunger or itching - affect mood, motivation to act and areas of the brain that process emotions.
In people who suffer from depression, it is found that the brain is less sensitive to these signals that are sent to it from the body.
Messages about muscle tone or breathing rate, for example, do not trigger the same reaction in the brain as they do in healthy people, so the brain has difficulty making predictions and reacting in a variable and adapted manner to the situation.
Francisco Romo-Nava, one of the leaders of the study, stated: "We think that the connection between the brain and the body is an essential component of psychiatric diseases. You can think of many symptoms of mood disorders or eating disorders as a dysregulation of the connection between the body and the brain."
This research is preliminary and has many limitations, but it is an innovative and intriguing direction that could give hope to millions around the world who suffer from depression.
For more articles on the Davidson Institute for Science Education website - click here
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