When the weather is cold and the sky is gray, some people tend to feel sad and unhappy. But these feelings are nothing in comparison with serious, chronic depression that is resistant to any kind of treatment.
Psychiatrist Hank Kaplan, D.O., considers the situation of people who have difficulties with getting out of bed. They sleep all they long, they cry a lot and simply they are not able to function normally. Work is something they can’t even talk about and even if they function within the family, they feel self-isolate.
This terrible state may be changed by a tiny pacemaker-like device. It weighs only a couple of ounces and is of two inches across. There are a lithium battery and a microprocessor inside the device. It is placed under the left collarbone during a surgery. Wires are linked up to the vagus nerve in the neck.
The device sends a series of gentle electrical impulses to the nerve…that leads to a part of the brain responsible for control of depression. This part is coincidentally responsible for epileptic seizures, like in the Erin Gray’s case.
In 2004, we presented you how the Erin’s pulse generator would start work every five minutes and continue for 60 seconds to control her episodes.
Doctors programmed the device to work particularly for patients who suffer from treatment resistant depression with various results.
Dr. Kaplan claims this would be a Godsend to bedridden people who are not able to function on a daily basis.
