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Smokey-bob t1_j5ng5ro wrote

Hope this makes a tumor destruction surgery not so invasive. But destroying parts of the brain just for depression sounds a bit overboard

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PatatasFrittas OP t1_j5nkk8l wrote

Depression is no "just". It robs you of being present in your own life and often literally kills you.

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alabasterwilliams t1_j5nl9b2 wrote

They tried this once.

Rosemary Kennedy should be a household name.

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FantasmaNaranja t1_j5p8u9i wrote

to be fair they tried it before that and after that and in fact you gotta wonder why they kept trying after the first victim

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PartyClock t1_j5pnss3 wrote

It sure made them stop saying how sad they were

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vega_9 t1_j5nnl77 wrote

Depression epidemic is a relatively new phenomenon introduced by modern society. maybe we should rethink society instead of altering our brain to fit into a broken system.

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zZEpicSniper303Zz t1_j5nz64a wrote

Depression is not "new".

It existed for as long as humanity, people were just sent to insane asylums or the local priest.

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Smart-Profit3889 t1_j5pfgek wrote

I’m sure when we lived as hunter gatherers that depression was just as rampant lol

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vega_9 t1_j5o5ro5 wrote

didn't say depression is... i said 'depression epidemic'.

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Dorocche t1_j5p1oy7 wrote

Definitely, in the long-term, but in the mean time loads of people are suffering right now. It doesn't make sense to let real people right now suffer and die in the name of fighting for a better system.

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KamikazeAlpaca1 t1_j5oyvjh wrote

I agree with you. Even in recent decades when aspect of society weren’t very different depression levels were lower than today. It’s a massive conglomeration of things that is really difficult to point to any one aspect. One thing I think about in relation to the rise of mental disorders is all of the environmental pollutants from chemical usage in a variety of products. There’s so many dangerous pollutants we know of, but yet still many more we don’t have a great understanding of but still pump out in high quantities. But, trying to change society is difficult and this could help many people.

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Condog5 t1_j5q98ta wrote

From my own experience with my dad on this topic, comments like this rile me. You can suck it sir.

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alabasterwilliams t1_j5nh3sp wrote

You get an ultrasound lobotomy, and you get an ultrasound lobotomy.

Everybody gets ultrasound lobotomies!

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GenBedellSmith t1_j5p7rhr wrote

They're different types of focused ultrasound! Or rather, involve different parameters/protocols.

High-intensity ultrasound is what is being used for neurosurgery. Low-intensity ultrasound is what's being used for treating disorders like depression.

Low-intensity ultrasound doesn't destroy any part of the brain. It merely inhibits them temporarily. This is more similar to Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), which is currently being used to treat depression, or to Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) which also shows promise.

The benefit of ultrasound is that it can target much deeper sites in the brain and with higher precision than TMS, which leads to new possible treatments. This is all still in the very early stages though.

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Smokey-bob t1_j5pk8ko wrote

I was aware of the magnetic treatments, was not aware that this would be similar, article makes it read like it would rely on destruction, so I am glad that this is different. I will have to rely on studies for long term exposure to less than destructive amplitudes, but ultrasonics do weird things to liquids

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