Pacemaker for Brain..Novel Treatment..!!

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a technique involving the implantation of electrodes in brain thus sending electrical impulses to specific areas. DBS in select brain regions has provided remarkable therapeutic benefits for otherwise treatment-resistant brain diorders.

Pacemaker in Epilepsy:

• According to the World Health Organisation, 50 million people across the world have epilepsy out of which 5.5 million are in India. Around 20 percent of the patients cannot be cured by medicine.

• Recently one of the patient was treated with the technique of “deep brain stimulation” (DBS). 

• Patient was implanted with a device called as “brain pacemaker” that sends electrical impulses to specific parts of the brain which controls discharge going to and through brain to all the limbs and she was cured of intractable epilepsy.

Pacemaker To Treat Depression:

• A major challenge in treating bipolar depressions is that many antidepressant medications may cause patient to “switch” to a hypomanic or manic episode.

• A new study shows that DBS can also be used for depression in the patients. This procedure can be used with either unipolar major depressive disorder or bipolar II disorder.

Pacemaker in Alzheimer’s disease:

• According to Burke, a recent pilot trial involving six people with Alzheimer’s showed great promise when it comes to treating Alzheimer’s. The DBS is ready for full clinical trials in the near future.

Other Brain diseases:

• Treatment resistant movement and affective disorders associated with the brain such as chronic pain, Parkinson’s disease, tremor and dystonia have been treated and the patients affected have benefited from this procedure.

So, with the increasing trend of the utilization of pacemakers in brain, it may prove to be a great benefit to treat brain disorders with minimum side-effects by simulation of normal functioning brain...!!