A new device scientists say may help bring the mind and body into balance Author: Jim Mertens Updated: 6:30 PM CDT July 12, 2021
CINCINNATI As many as 30% of Americans who have major depression may try medication after medication, and not find anything that works.
It s even tougher for the seven percent of all American adults who have at least one episode of major depression each year, that s a depression that lasts two weeks or longer.
Treatments include counseling, medications, or transcranial magnetic stimulation, TMS, to stimulate the mood-regulating parts of the brain. Not all patients respond to the medication or to the neuromodulation, explained Dr. Francisco Romo-Nava, a physician scientist at the University of Cincinnati s Lindner Center of HOPE.
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Obesity and binge eating: a disrupted clock in our body?
The clocks on our walls, on the lock screens of our phones and attached to our wrists drive most actions in our lives. Time determines when we have to go to bed or wake up in the morning, when we need to be in class or at work and even when we feel the need to eat breakfast, lunch or dinner.
We also have inner, cellular clocks in most tissues of our body that are coordinated by a master circadian clock in the brain. These clocks form our circadian system that triggers some of these needs and responses, like getting tired and feeling hunger.
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Francisco Romo-Nava, MD, Ph.D., a University of Cincinnati researcher, is continuing to enroll participants ages 18-55 who aren t currently on medication. He wants to determine whether they ll respond to electrical stimulation as a way to treat depression and other psychological illnesses. If we can fix that disturbance, we may be able to improve both the mental and physical health of patients, he says. Romo-Nava believes the interaction between the brain and the body is a self-regulating feedback circuit that is often disturbed in psychiatric disorders.
UC says it is the first to study depression using electrical stimulation.
Researchers attach electrodes to the back and shoulder and deliver stimulation for 20 minutes each, three times a week for eight weeks. Romo-Nava says participants will barely feel it and it won t hurt them.
Depression Could Eventually Be Treated With An Over-The-Counter Stimulator wvxu.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from wvxu.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
11:51 We think that a relatively small electrical current applied through the skin, which can barely be felt by the patient and will not hurt them, will moderate the brain-body communication neural pathways in the spinal cord and will impact certain regions of the brain, Romo-Nava says.
Romo-Nava says he thinks of the interaction between the brain and the body as a self-regulating feedback circuit that is often disturbed in psychiatric disorders. If we can fix that disturbance, we may be able to improve both the mental and physical health of patients, he says.
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