Can Deep Brain Stimulation Be a Promising Treatment for Treatment-Resistant Depression?

Abstract

Background: In recent decades, despite remarkable advances in antidepressant medication, psychotherapy, and electrical stimulation, between 20%-30% of patients suffering from major depressive disorder remain untreated or are at a high risk of relapse. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a recently invented modality that has been under investigation since 2005, however, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not yet approved it as a final line in treating severe depression. Methods:In this study the author tried by reviewing the evidence-based articles on applying DBS for treating human depression, to reach a conclusion whether DBS has the potential to be the ultimate treatment for depressive disorder. Data were derived from evidence-based studies published on PubMed/Medline, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, ScienceDirect, EMBASE, and APA PsycINFO. The emphasis was on applying DBS for human depression, consequently after refining inclusion and exclusion criteria, 42 articles that contain the results of 446 tested patients were reviewed. Conclusion:Data reanalysis demonstrated, DBS has the capability for treating severe measure depressive disorder (MDD) or refractory depression as an adjunctive treatment if its weaknesses including, the lack of consensus on DBS protocol and its stimulation parameters, duration of treatment, the effect of placebo, and considering the individualized pattern of depression become resolved through doing further highly controlled studies that compare the short-term and long-term effects.