

Electrical stimulation in sub-cortical nuclei to treat depression - kghose
http://psychcentral.com/news/2012/01/05/deep-brain-stimulation-appears-effective-for-depression-bipolar-disorder/33261.html

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steve-howard
There doesn't seem to be a mention of side effects in this article, and I'd be
very hesitant to seek this treatment route if it had the same side-effects as
electroconvulsive therapy:
[https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Electroconvul...](https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Electroconvulsive_therapy#Adverse_effects)

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kghose
Deep Brain Stimulation has the benefit of being more directed. An electrode is
lowered into a part of the basal ganglia
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basal_ganglia>) and current pulses are used to
activate neuron groups. Its not clear how it works, but it is certainly more
directed than electro convulsive therapy.

But, it is true, we don't really know the long term effects. However, DBS for
parkinson's has been a steady success, so we can hope.

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billpatrianakos
Very interesting. I notice a lot of articles on depression and mental health
get posted on HN. I know depression is a serious issue among startups so I
also wonder if its not just startups but programmers in general?

I know that I myself am very prone to depression. For years I've struggled
with it and it can kick in and fade out very quickly. For me I believe it's
hereditary but I wonder what the cause is for others in this field. Obviously
the startup lifestyle is stressful enough for the cause of depression to be
obvious. But what is it about the profession of programming minus the startup
lifestyle that makes us so likely to be depressed?

If other programmers are anything like me then they work alone for long
periods of time. Don't go out much and don't socialize often. It's a solitary
life and you're also likely to be smarter than other people so it's hard to
really feel connected with others. Interests may be very different than others
around you too which doesn't help. It's not that we're socially awkward (well,
at least Im not, I'm actually really great at being social when I need to,
very well liked, but I prefer to stay away from most social situations) it may
just be that there aren't enough people like us around to socialize with. It
makes sense that we form relationships with people we find across the world
online rather than next door.

Anyway, I've rambled on enough. This treatment is interesting and I think its
posting here says a lot about what we as a community deal with mentally.

~~~
kghose
Clinical depression is not so rare (unfortunately) and I don't know if it is a
speacial issue among people who do startups.

The treatment described here is for people who don't respond to cognitive and
drug therapy.

My interest in this topic is also from a basic science aspect. I am very
intrigued by the fact that stimulating a part of the brain thought to be
responsible for selecting motor acts can result in alleviation of something as
complicated and "cognitive" as depression.

