Brain stimulation therapy helps a Minnesota man overcome severe depression
September 15, 2024 — With the help of a first-of-its-kind brain stimulation therapy, Tom, a Minnesota man, overcame a lifetime of severe depression.
After years of struggling with ineffective treatments, Tom joined a University of Minnesota clinical trial that sought to determine whether a new, personalized approach that uses brain stimulation to address depression could help people like him finally find relief from their symptoms.
BME Professor Tay Netoff was part of Tom’s research team, working closely with Tom to fine-tune the settings of the four electrodes implanted in his brain.
Through a collaborative process that Netoff describes as resembling a game of Battleship, they explored 17 different stimulation settings. The final setting gave Tom a feeling of calmness, of being at ease. “Like after you take a few deep breaths,” he adds.
Netoff had worked alongside UMN colleagues Ziad Nahas, MD, director of the research project; Damien Fair, PhD, PA-C; and David Darrow, MD, MPH to implement the brain stimulation therapy. After meeting with Tom and creating his “brain fingerprint,” the research team identified the specific spots in Tom’s brain and then placed electrodes there during surgery.
Tom says the approach gave him the ability to healthily experience all of life’s emotions, something he had never been able to do:
“It was like something had just opened, or a wall had come down, and I just had access to all these emotions.”