Health
Depression could be 'zapped' away with brain stimulation, new study suggests: ‘Better quality of life’
For those with severe depression, relief could soon be just an MRI away.
In a major clinical trial, researchers from the University of Nottingham in the U.K. applied transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to the brains of 255 patients with treatment-resistant depression over a total of 20 sessions.
The patients reported “substantial improvements” in their symptoms and quality of life for at least six months after the procedure, according to a press release from the university.
MENTAL HEALTH MAY BE WORSE IN TEENS FROM LARGE FAMILIES, STUDY SUGGESTS: ‘FEWER RESOURCES’
More than two-thirds of participants responded to the treatment, with a third showing 50% improvement in symptoms.
For one-fifth of the patients, their depression did not return.
Researchers from the University of Nottingham applied transcranial magnetic stimulation to the brains of 255 patients with treatment-resistant depression over a total of 20 sessions. (iStock)
“Given that these patients are people who have not responded to two previous treatment attempts and have been ill for an average of seven years, to get such a significant response rate and a fifth who have a sustained response is really encouraging,” lead researcher Richard Morriss, professor of psychiatry at the University of Nottingham, told Fox News Digital, said in the release.
The findings were published in the journal Nature Medicine on Jan. 16.
JEWISH STUDENTS STRUGGLING WITH ANTISEMITISM AT COLLEGE NOW HAVE USE OF WALK-IN MENTAL HEALTH CLINIC
“Transcranial magnetic stimulation is a well-established treatment for depression that is available in many but not all centers, unlike antidepressants, ECT and psychological treatments, which are available anywhere,” Morriss told Fox News Digital.
Previously, TMS has been delivered in a less effective and precise way, Morriss said, and the results didn’t last as long.
The patients reported “substantial improvements” in their symptoms and quality of life for at least six months after the procedure, said researchers. (iStock)
“The importance of this research is that for the first time, in a large enough randomized controlled trial, the benefits on depression lasted six months or more,” he said.
“Not only that, but on average, one in two people [who received] the TMS had a substantial benefit in depression lasting at least six months — enough to improve their anxiety and make them think clearly, function better and have a better quality of life.”
“The benefits to people who have suffered for years are quite remarkable.”
The researchers used an MRI scan to personalize the site of the magnetic stimulation for each patient, Morriss noted.
“We used a neuronavigation system, or tracking system, to ensure that the same site was hit for all 20 TMS sessions, [even] if the person sat in a slightly different position or moved slightly,” he said.
Ninety-two percent of the study participants completed the full treatment, said Morriss, with only “minor side effects” that lasted less than a day.
In 2023, 29% of Americans reported having been diagnosed with depression at some point in their lives, while 17.8% said they currently suffer from it. (iStock)
“People went to the hospital and could resume their usual activities, and they could drive there and back for this treatment,” he said.
Although the MRI-guided treatment costs about 25% more than the traditional TMS treatments, Morriss said the benefits last longer — “so maybe the person only needs one or at the most two courses of treatment per year.”
DEPRESSION AND ANXIETY RATES HIGHER AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS THAN THEIR PEERS, NEW STUDY SUGGESTS
The study did have some limitations, Morriss acknowledged.
The researchers were not able to include a placebo group, as it was deemed “ethically and clinically unacceptable” to give a placebo treatment for as long as six months to such a seriously ill group of people, he said.
Although the MRI-guided treatment costs about 25% more than the traditional TMS treatments, the benefits last longer, researchers said. (iStock)
“So we do not know for sure how much of the TMS effect is real and how much is due to other factors,” he noted. “It seems likely that a high proportion of the effect is due to TMS.”
Not every center offering TMS can access MRI technology, Morriss said, but many sites across the U.S. and Canada do have the equipment.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR HEALTH NEWSLETTER
“The additional cost and lack of availability of MRI or the expertise to use it is something that doctors and insurers will need to consider,” he added.
Alex Dimitriu, M.D., a psychiatrist and founder of Menlo Park Psychiatry & Sleep Medicine in California, was not involved in the Nottingham study but reviewed the findings.
“There is no doubt that magnetic brain stimulation can be an effective treatment for depression, and this study, using targeted magnetic pulses, further reinforces the efficacy of this treatment,” a psychologist said. (iStock)
“There is no doubt that magnetic brain stimulation can be an effective treatment for depression, and this study, using targeted magnetic pulses, further reinforces the efficacy of this treatment,” he said.
A similar type of focused magnetic therapy was developed at Stanford, which found similar strong positive outcomes, Dimitriu said.
“Notably, these therapies can be expensive and somewhat time-consuming — however, the benefits to people who have suffered for years are quite remarkable,” he said.
For anyone dealing with a treatment-resistant psychiatric condition, Dimitriu emphasized the importance of correcting and optimizing sleep before gauging the effectiveness of any treatment.
In 2023, 29% of Americans reported having been diagnosed with depression at some point in their lives, while 17.8% said they currently suffer from it.
For more Health articles, visit www.foxnews.com/health.
Use left and right arrow keys to navigate between menu items.
Use escape to exit the menu.
Sign Up
Create a free account to access exclusive content, play games, solve puzzles, test your pop-culture knowledge and receive special offers.
Already have an account? Login
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Eating too much salt has long been linked to high blood pressure, but new research suggests it could trick the immune system into prematurely aging the blood vessels.
A preclinical study recently published in the Journal of the American Heart Association has identified a biological chain reaction that links a salty diet to cardiovascular decay.
Scientists at the University of South Alabama observed that mice on a high-salt diet experienced rapid deterioration in their blood vessel function.
HIGH SALT INTAKE LINKED TO FASTER MEMORY DECLINE IN ONE GROUP, STUDY FINDS
After just four weeks of high sodium intake, the small arteries responsible for regulating blood flow lost their ability to relax, according to a press release.
The team found that the cells lining these vessels had entered a state of cellular senescence, a form of premature cellular aging in which cells stop dividing and release a mix of inflammatory signals that can damage surrounding tissue.
Excess salt has long been linked to high blood pressure, but a new study goes deeper into its effects on the cardiovascular system. (iStock)
The researchers tried to replicate this damage by exposing blood vessel cells directly to salt in a laboratory dish, but the cells showed no harmful effects.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE HEALTH STORIES
This suggests that salt isn’t directly causing damage to the vascular lining but that the real culprit may be the body’s own defense mechanism, the researchers noted.
Excess salt may trigger the immune system to release a molecule called interleukin-16 (IL-16), which acts as a messenger that instructs blood vessel cells to grow old before their time, according to the study.
Excess salt may trigger the immune system to release a molecule called interleukin-16, which acts as a messenger that instructs blood vessel cells to grow old before their time, according to the study. (iStock)
Once these cells age, they fail to produce nitric oxide, the essential gas that tells arteries to dilate and stay flexible.
To test whether this process could be reversed, the team turned to a class of experimental drugs known as senolytics.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Using a cancer medication called navitoclax, which selectively clears out aged and dysfunctional cells, the researchers were able to restore nearly normal blood vessel function in the salt-fed mice, the release stated.
TEST YOURSELF WITH OUR LATEST LIFESTYLE QUIZ.
By removing the decaying cells created by the high-salt diet, the drug allowed the remaining healthy tissue to maintain its elasticity and respond correctly to blood flow demands.
Excess salt may trigger the immune system into stopping the cells from dividing, the study suggests. (iStock)
The study did have some limitations. The transition from mouse models to human treatment remains a significant hurdle, the team cautioned.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR HEALTH NEWSLETTER
Senolytic drugs like navitoclax are still being studied for safety, and the team emphasized that previous trials have shown mixed results regarding their impact on artery plaque.
Additionally, the researchers have not yet confirmed whether the same IL-16 pathway is the primary driver of vascular aging in humans.
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Eating a diet high in fruits and vegetables was found to have a surprising link to lung cancer among younger non-smokers, early research suggests.
The observational study, led by Jorge Nieva, M.D., of the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center at Keck Medicine, was presented this month at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting in San Diego. It has not yet been peer-reviewed.
Researchers looked at dietary, smoking and demographic data for 187 patients who were diagnosed with lung cancer at age 50 or younger.
PANCREATIC CANCER PATIENT SURVIVAL DOUBLED WITH HIGH DOSE OF COMMON VITAMIN, STUDY FINDS
They found that among non-smokers, there was a link between healthier-than-average diets – rich in fruits, vegetables and whole grains – and the chance of lung cancer development.
Young lung cancer patients ate more servings of dark green vegetables, legumes and whole grains compared to the average U.S. adult, the researchers found.
Eating a diet high in fruits and vegetables was found to have a surprising link to lung cancer among younger non-smokers, early research suggests. (iStock)
The researchers hypothesized that pesticides applied to conventionally grown produce could be a possible factor in the disease association.
“Commercially produced (non-organic) fruits, vegetables and whole grains are more likely to be associated with a higher residue of pesticides than dairy, meat and many processed foods,” according to Nieva. He also noted that agricultural workers exposed to pesticides tend to have higher rates of lung cancer.
HIDDEN VIRUS INSIDE GUT BACTERIA LINKED TO DOUBLED COLORECTAL CANCER RISK, STUDY FINDS
“There is a large subset of lung cancer patients whose disease is not caused by smoking,” Nieva told Fox News Digital.
The disease is becoming more common in non-smokers 50 and younger, especially women – despite the fact that smoking rates have been falling for decades, the researcher noted.
The researchers hypothesized that pesticides applied to conventionally grown produce could be a possible factor in the disease association. (iStock)
“These patients tend to have eaten much healthier diets before their diagnosis than the average American,” he went on. “We need to support research into understanding why Americans – and women in particular – who no longer smoke very much are still having lung cancer,” he said.
DEATHS FROM ONE TYPE OF CANCER ARE SURGING AMONG YOUNGER ADULTS WITHOUT COLLEGE DEGREES
The study did have some limitations, Nieva acknowledged, primarily that it relied on survey data and was limited by the participants’ memories of their food intake.
“Also, the survey participants were self-selected, and this could have biased the findings,” he told Fox News Digital.
“There is a large subset of lung cancer patients whose disease is not caused by smoking.”
The researchers did not test specific foods for pesticides, relying instead on average pesticide levels for certain types of food. Looking ahead, they plan to test patients’ blood and urine samples to directly measure pesticide levels, Nieva said.
Although the study shows only an association and does not prove that pesticides caused lung cancer, Nieva recommends that people wash their produce before eating and choose organic foods whenever possible.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE HEALTH STORIES
“This work represents a critical step toward identifying modifiable environmental factors that may contribute to lung cancer in young adults,” said Nieva. “Our hope is that these insights can guide both public health recommendations and future investigation into lung cancer prevention.”
“It is possible that the increased lung cancer risk could be due to pesticide exposure in whole farmed foods, but is by no means certain,” a doctor said. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Dr. Marc Siegel, Fox News senior medical analyst, said the study is “interesting,” but that it “raises far more questions than it answers.”
“It is a small study (around 150) and observational, so no proof,” the doctor, who was not involved in the research, told Fox News Digital.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR HEALTH NEWSLETTER
“It is possible that the increased lung cancer risk could be due to pesticide exposure in whole farmed foods, but it is by no means certain,” Siegel went on. “How much exposure is needed? How much of it gets into food and in which areas? This requires much further study.”
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Kayla Nichols, communications director for Pesticide Action & Agroecology Network, a distributed global network, said the organization agrees with the study’s conclusion that more research should be done on the rise in lung cancer, particularly in individuals eating diets higher in produce and fiber.
“There is a large subset of lung cancer patients whose disease is not caused by smoking,” the researcher told Fox News Digital. (iStock)
“There is a bounty of existing research that already links pesticide exposure to increased risk of multiple types of cancers,” Nichols, who was also not involved in the study, told Fox News Digital. She called for more research on chronic, low-level exposures to pesticides, as well as more effective policies to protect the public from pesticide residues on food.
TEST YOURSELF WITH OUR LATEST LIFESTYLE QUIZ
The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute, as well as industry partners including AstraZeneca and Genentech, among others.
Fox News Digital reached out to several pesticide companies and trade groups for comment.
-
New York40 minutes agoTrump’s Immigration Crackdown Pervades Long Island Suburbs
-
Detroit, MI1 hour agoChris Simms projects Detroit Lions first-round NFL draft pick
-
San Francisco, CA1 hour agoSan Francisco sets $3.4B price tag for public takeover of PG&E
-
Dallas, TX1 hour agoGame Day Guide: Stars at Wild | Dallas Stars
-
Miami, FL2 hours agoMay a steadying presence as Cards hold off Marlins in Miami
-
Boston, MA2 hours agoTyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe flex in Boston: Takeaways from Celtics-76ers Game 2
-
Denver, CO2 hours agoMotorcyclist seriously injured in Denver hit-and-run crash – AOL
-
Seattle, WA2 hours agoBrock: 2 drafts fits at edge rusher for Seattle Seahawks