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A team of neurosurgeons at Heidelberg University Hospital and psychiatrists at the Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim have for the first time successfully treated a patient suffering from severe depression by stimulating the habenula, a tiny nerve structure in the brain…

A key brain protein called monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A) - is highly elevated during clinical depression yet is unaffected by treatment with commonly used antidepressants, according to an important study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry. The study has important implications for our understanding of why antidepressants don’t always work…

Thanks to a new method there is a reason for hope for patients with very severe depression. Physicians at the University Clinics of Bonn and Cologne have treated ten patients with deep brain stimulation. This involved implanting electrodes in the patients’ nucleus accumbens. This centre has a key role as the brains reward system, whose function may be impaired in depressive people. Subsequent to this treatment, the patients’ depression improved significantly in half of the patients.

An innovative diagnostic technique invented by a Monash University researcher could dramatically fast-track the detection of mental and neurological illnesses. Monash biomedical engineer Brian Lithgow has developed electrovestibulography which is something akin to an ‘ECG for the mind’.

It’s more than just feeling bad. Clinical depression affects the way we process information in the brain, negatively affecting memory, attention span, and the brain’s ability to learn new things. Now Tel Aviv University research has provided scientific proof that depression changes our visual perception as well. A research team headed by Dr.

When anticipating pain, the brains of subjects with major depressive disorder appear to react more strongly, and appear to display altered functioning of the neural network that moderates pain sensitivity, according to an article released on November 3, 2008 in Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. “Chronic pain and depression are common and often overlapping syndromes,” write the authors.

CNS Response, Inc. (OTCBB: CNSO) reported the results of a study by the Center for Health Economics, Epidemiology, and Science Policy at United BioSource Corporation, a global pharmacoeconomic research firm and one of the most experienced firms providing evidence-based review of innovative healthcare technologies.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave the green light earlier this month for a new non-invasive treatment for depression that relies on a magnetic device to stimulate the brain by sending magnetic pulses through the skull.

Neuronetics, Inc., a privately-held medical device company and a leader in the field of neuromodulation, announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared its NeuroStar TMS (Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation) Therapy system for the treatment of depression.

Images of the brain’s fastest signals reveal an electromagnetic marker that predicts a patient’s response to a fast-acting antidepressant, researchers have discovered. “Such biomarkers that identify who will benefit from a new class of antidepressants could someday minimize trial-and-error prescribing and speed delivery of care for what can be a life-threatening illness,” said Carlos Zarate, M.D.