
Deep brain stimulation of the internal capsule enhances human cognitive control - headalgorithm
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-09557-4
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zarkov99
While any kind of therapeutic relief for mental health problems is of course
great news, the reasons behind the mental health epidemic seem to me much more
environmental: lack of meaning, lack of opportunity, lack of community. Maybe
we can change our brains to not need these things so much, but it might be
better to get to the root of the problem.

~~~
cheeko1234
I think the loss of religion is partly to blame for that. How does one
compensate for that?

~~~
jjeaff
Get some religion perhaps? There are so many variants that one would have to
be awefully close minded to lot be able to find one they can relate to. You
don't have to be an all in orthodox believer to participate in a faith based
group.

~~~
0xcde4c3db
> You don't have to be an all in orthodox believer to participate in a faith
> based group.

No, but it's tough to find one that doesn't require either believing in
supernatural entities or lying about that belief in order to remain welcome,
and I can't convince myself to do either of those things.

~~~
jjeaff
I doubt that. You can walk into many modern churches and tell them that you're
not a believer but you want to be a part of their community and they will
welcome you with open arms if you are kind and wish to contribute in a
positive way.

We have a few spouses at the church that I am a member of that are not members
and don't wish to become one. But they attend and participate like everyone
else and they are welcome just the same.

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tsumnia
"Focused electrical/magnetic brain stimulation has been proposed as a better
approach to the mental health epidemic..."

As this was my first thought and I'm not knowledgeable in neuroscience at all,
how has this method evolved from the older "electroshock therapy" method?

~~~
aznpwnzor
there was nothing inherently wrong with the older "electroshock therapy." in
fact it worked quite often than you'd think. but obviously this we have more
precise targeting and result metrics now.

Also electroshock therapy ran at much higher currents, while current (hehe)
thought is that milliamps as low as 2 over the scalp is enough for therapeutic
effects. tho ofc there are those that disagree that 2 mA is enough to
penetrate the skull.

~~~
stochastic_monk
ECT, electroconvulsive therapy, actually is tremendously effective for
refractory depression. I’ve known several individuals for whom it made all the
difference.

It comes with massive memory loss; this leads me to think that the
antidepressant effects of NMDA antagonists, cannabis, and ECT are all mediated
by memory modulation.

To the point, it would be amazing if these benefits could be realized without
nuking the brain.

~~~
meowface
I have no doubt ECT is very beneficial for many people with refractory
depression, but I suspect the memory loss may be correlation and not
causation.

I think the memory loss might be unnecessary collateral damage, perhaps due to
a lack of precision, and future ECT advances may reduce the memory loss while
retaining the antidepressant effects. I'm also not aware of any research
indicating that the antidepressant effects of cannabis or NMDA antagonists
like ketamine are connected to memory. But I'm definitely no expert in either
field.

