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Deep Brain Stimulation for Depression

Deep Brain Stimulation for Depression

Deep brain stimulation, an experimental and invasive treatment that involves stimulating the brain with electrical signals, may help treat otherwise difficult to cure depression, a new study reports.

Depression is an illness that involves the body, mood and thoughts. Imbalances in three brain chemicals, serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine, are linked to depression. Unlike normal emotional experiences of sadness, loss or passing mood states, depressive disorders are persistent and can significantly interfere with an individual's thoughts, behavior, mood, activity and physical health.

Depressive disorders affect approximately 18.8 million American adults or about 9.5 percent of the U.S. population age 18 and older in a given year. Among all medical illnesses, major depression is the leading cause of disability in the United States and many other developed countries. Without treatment, symptoms can last for weeks, months or years. Appropriate treatment, however, can help most people who suffer from depression.

Researchers from the University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, explained that an early report in six patients suggested that deep brain stimulation of the subcallosal cingulate gyrus (part of the brain) may provide benefit in treatment-resistant depression.

In the study, 20 patients with treatment-resistant depression underwent serial assessments before and after the deep brain stimulation. The researchers analyzed the percentage of patients who achieved a response or remission after surgery. They also examined changes in brain metabolism associated with deep brain stimulation.

The researchers observed both early and progressive benefits with deep brain stimulation. For example, one month after surgery, 35 percent of the patients met criteria for response with 10 percent of patients in remission. Furthermore, six months after surgery, 60 percent of patients were responded to therapy and 35 percent met the criteria for remission. These benefits were largely maintained at 12 months.

Deep brain stimulation therapy was associated with specific changes in the metabolic activity localized to cortical and limbic circuits implicated in the pathogenesis of depression. The number of serious adverse effects was small with no patient experiencing permanent deficits.

The authors concluded that deep brain stimulation provides significant improvement in patients with treatment-resistant depression. The stimulation likely acts by modulating brain networks whose dysfunction leads to depression. They observed that the procedure was well-tolerated and benefits were sustained for at least one year.

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A unique coherence project for the first time on earth – come join…….

The scientific community is just beginning to appreciate how the fields generated by living systems and the ionosphere interact with one another. For instance, the earth and the ionosphere generate a symphony of frequencies ranging from 0.01 hertz to 300 hertz, and some of the large resonances occurring in the earth's fields are in the same frequency range as those of the human heart and brain. Although researchers have looked at some of the possible interactions between the earth's fields and human, animal and plant activity, scientists have barely scratched the surface of what may be achieved with something as sophisticated as the Global Coherence Monitoring System.

A number of important findings already have emerged. For example, changes in the earth's magnetic field are associated with changes in brain and nervous system activity; performance of athletic, memory and other tasks; sensitivity in a wide range of extrasensory perception experiments; synthesis of nutrients in plants and algae; the number of reported traffic violations and accidents; mortality from heart attacks and strokes; and incidence of depression and suicide. It's interesting to note that changes in geomagnetic conditions affect the rhythms of the heart more strongly than all the physiological functions studied so far.

There is also evidence in some cases that people's brainwaves can synchronize with the rhythm of the electromagnetic waves generated in the earth's ionosphere. When people say they "feel" an impending earthquake or other planetary events, such as weather changes, it is possible that they may be reacting to the actual physical signals that occur in the earth's field prior to the event.

The Global Coherence Monitoring System will directly measure the planet's magnetic field, which we postulate should be much more sensitive to the effects of emotion-based collective human interactions than can be detected with other types of detectors. For example, two National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) space weather satellites monitoring the earth's geomagnetic field also displayed a significant spike at the time of the September 11th attack and for several days thereafter, indicating the stress wave possibly caused by mass human emotion created modulations in the geomagnetic field .

Geosynchronous Operational Environmental Satellites - Measuring the Earth's Geomagnetic Field

Geosynchronous Operational Environmental Satellites – Measuring the Earth's Geomagnetic Field.

The Global Coherence Monitoring System will establish a worldwide network of sensing stations to measure fluctuations in the earth's geomagnetic fields for the following purposes:

  1. Verify the degree to which earthquake, volcanic eruptions and other planetary energetic events are reflected in and predicted by specific patterns of activity in the dynamics of the earth's magnetic field.
  2. Examine the degree to which there is an energetic resonance between the earth's magnetic field and the rhythms of human heart and brain activity.
  3. Examine the influence of the earth's field on patterns of human collective behavior.
  4. Examine the degree to which collective human emotional resonance in response to mass events of common emotional significance is reflected in the activity of the earth's magnetic field.

We believe the Global Coherence Monitoring System can facilitate a better understanding of the mutual interactions between humans and our global environment. Far more important, however, is enlisting the collaboration of individuals and groups of people in establishing and amplifying coherent out-going fields which interact with planetary fields, thus helping establish global coherence.

Visit this site and join this unique project done for the first time on earth:

http://www.globalcoherenceproject.org/

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Music Therapy

Music Therapy for Depression, Anxiety

Music therapy may improve depression, anxiety and relationships in psychiatric patients, a new study reports.

Music is an ancient tool of healing that was recognized in the writings of the Greek philosophers Pythagoras, Aristotle and Plato. The modern discipline of music therapy began early in the 20th Century with community musicians visiting veterans' hospitals around the country to play for those traumatized by war. The positive response prompted many hospitals to hire musicians to play for their patients.

Studies suggest that music may be used to influence physical, emotional, cognitive and social well-being and improve quality of life for healthy people, as well as those who are disabled or ill. It may involve either listening to or performing music, with or without the presence of a music therapist.

Music therapists are professionally trained to design specialized applications of music according to an individual's needs using improvisation, receptive listening, song writing, lyric discussion, imagery, performance or learning through music. They work in psychiatric hospitals, prisons, rehabilitative facilities, medical hospitals, outpatient clinics, day treatment centers, agencies serving developmentally disabled persons, community mental health centers, drug and alcohol programs, senior centers, nursing homes, hospice programs, correctional facilities, halfway houses, schools and private practices.

Infants, children, adolescents, adults, the elderly and even animals can all potentially benefit from music therapy. Research supports all forms of music as having therapeutic effects, although music from one's own culture may be most effective. Types of music differ in the types of neurological stimulation they evoke. For example, classical music has been found to soothe and comfort the listener, while rock music may be unsettling and cause distress.

Researchers from the Graduate School of Art Therapy, Daejeon University, Daejeon, South Korea, tested whether group music therapy effectively improves depression, anxiety and relationships. A total of 26 patients were allocated to either a music intervention group or a routine care group.

The music intervention group received 60 minutes of music intervention for 15 sessions (one or two times weekly).

The study found that after 15 sessions, the music intervention group showed significant improvements in depression, anxiety and relationships compared with the control group.

The authors concluded that despite the positive results, objective and replicable measures are required from a randomized controlled trial with a larger sample size and an active comparable control.

There is evidence that music that reflects the listener's personal preference is more likely to have desired effects. It is possible that music through headphones during medical procedures could interfere with the patient's cooperation with the procedures. Further research is needed in this area.

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Commitment

Winston Spencer Churchill was born on November 30, 1874, in England. He served in the British Army until 1899. The following year, Churchill began his long career in the government. Churchill was elected to various positions for the next several years. After the beginning of World War II, Churchill was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty. In early May, the former Prime Minister of England resigned and Churchill was appointed to the position by King George VI. England's army suffered many losses early on and Churchill faced a great deal of criticism. But one of the major contributions he made to eventual victory was his ability to inspire the British people to greater effort by making public broadcasts on significant occasions.

 A brilliant orator, he was a tireless source of strength to people experiencing the sufferings of the German bombing campaign. On October 29, 1941, Churchill made a speech at Harrow School which he attended as a youth. Part of the speech included the line, "Never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy." He also used the phrase, "Never, never, never give up" in his personal writing and correspondence. Churchill lost his bid for re-election in 1945 and shortly thereafter suffered his first stroke. He remained active in politics, returning to the Prime Minister position in 1951, until his health forced him to retire in 1956. Throughout his life he was an avid writer and even won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Sir Winston Churchill passed away on January 24, 1965.

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