US Pharm. 2012;37(1):40.
According to findings published online in the Archives of General Psychiatry, a recent study provides additional data on the effectiveness of subcallosal cingulate (SCC) deep brain stimulation (DBS) in patients with treatment-resistant depression, including bipolar disorder. Results of the study show that after 2 years of long-term stimulation, there was a 92% response rate and a 58% remission rate in 12 patients (the study included 17 adult patients). No patient who achieved remission had a spontaneous depressive relapse.
Surgeons implanted DBS electrodes bilaterally into the SCC white matter of the study subjects and placed a pulse generator in the infraclavicular region, connecting it to the DBS electrodes via subcutaneous extension wires. “This is the first time that bipolar patients have been included in a study of deep brain stimulation in any substantial way,” said lead author Paul E. Holtzheimer, MD, associate professor of psychiatry and surgery and Director, Mood Disorders Service, Dartmouth Medical School, Lebanon, New Hampshire. “Even though our sample had only 7 bipolar patients, it’s actually the largest bipolar disorder cohort to undergo DBS for depression.”
