A new translational target for deep brain stimulation to treat depression

Depression is a common, severe psychiatric illness with an enormous individual and societal burden and limited therapeutic options. Unfortunately, between about 10 and 30% of depressed patients taking antidepressants and receiving psychotherapy are partially or totally resistant to these treatments, and even with electroconvulsive therapy, a significant number remain refractory between about 10 and 30% of depressed patients taking antidepressants and receiving psychotherapy are partially or totally resistant to these treatments, and even with electroconvulsive therapy, a significant number remain refractory. Thus, there is an urgent need for more effective treatments, especially for the most severely affected fraction of patients.> …between about 10 and 30% of depressed patients taking antidepressants and receiving psychotherapy are partially or totally resistant to these treatments, and even with electroconvulsive therapy, a significant number remain refractory.For the treatment of neurological symptoms, such as essential tremor, dystonia and Parkinson Disease, deep brain stimulation (DBS) has become a routine treatment. Given this success, the last decade has seen its application in small case series and individual cases to treat depression. Most of these studies have described successful treatment rates of around 30–50% in patients who had previously been characterised as treatment resistant.Such an approach in treatment resistant depression (TRD) of course depends on the selection of suitable targets in the complex neural circuits mediating this brain disease. To be able to translate preclinical findings into human research, a valid animal model and a tool for translation are required. In our search for an appropriate target, we have used the congenital Learned Helpless (cLH) model, which uniquely models TRD. Inter alia , our established genetic …