This is an update on this device...side effects include bleeding and brain infections...yes this would have to be an absolute last chance device and procedure...so far more than 40,000 patients have the implant and it does help with Parkinson's' disease as well..some patients are responding well while it is not helping others...the signals can be turned off and on as well...the surgery is anticipated to run about $40,000.00 if the testing proves it's value...BD
It's a new frontier for psychiatric illness: Brain pacemakers that promise to act as antidepressants by changing how patients' nerve circuitry fires. Scientists already know the power of these devices to block the tremors of Parkinson's disease and related illnesses; more than 40,000 such patients worldwide have the implants.
"It is an invasive, experimental procedure," he warns, with risks including bleeding in the brain and infections. He calls DBS "the last resort for stringently selected patients."
But psychiatric illnesses are much more complex and the new experiments with so-called deep brain stimulation, or DBS, are in their infancy. Only a few dozen patients with severe depression or obsessive-compulsive disorder so far have been treated in closely monitored studies.
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