Jan 14, 2017 07:22 PM
Implant zaps vagus nerve just right to treat inflammation
http://www.futurity.org/vagus-nerve-1335012-2/
EXCERPT: An implanted device—a bit like a pacemaker—electrically stimulates the vagus nerve, while inhibiting unwanted nerve activity in a targeted way. Forms of vagus nerve stimulation treatment against chronic inflammation have already been successfully tested in humans by private industry with the intent to make them available to patients. But the innovation by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology adds an inhibiting signal could increase the clinical efficacy and therapeutic benefit of existing treatments....
Shocking the Brain: The Wild History of Electroconvulsive Therapy
http://www.livescience.com/57507-history...erapy.html
EXCERPT: [...] The public grief over Carrie Fisher's death was not only for an actress who played one of the most iconic roles in film history. It was also for one who spoke with wit and courage about her struggle with mental illness. In a way, the fearless General Leia Organa on screen was not much of an act.
Fisher's bravery, though, was not just in fighting the stigma of her illness, but also in declaring in her memoir "Shockaholic" her voluntary use of a stigmatized treatment: electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), often known as shock treatment.
Many critics have portrayed ECT as a form of medical abuse, and depictions in film and television are usually scary. Yet many psychiatrists, and more importantly, patients, consider it to be a safe and effective treatment for severe depression and bipolar disorder. Few medical treatments have such disparate images.
I am a historian of psychiatry, and I have published a book on the history of ECT. I had, like many people, been exposed only to the frightening images of ECT, and I grew interested in the history of the treatment after learning how many clinicians and patients consider it a valuable treatment. My book asks the question: Why has this treatment been so controversial? ....
http://www.futurity.org/vagus-nerve-1335012-2/
EXCERPT: An implanted device—a bit like a pacemaker—electrically stimulates the vagus nerve, while inhibiting unwanted nerve activity in a targeted way. Forms of vagus nerve stimulation treatment against chronic inflammation have already been successfully tested in humans by private industry with the intent to make them available to patients. But the innovation by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology adds an inhibiting signal could increase the clinical efficacy and therapeutic benefit of existing treatments....
Shocking the Brain: The Wild History of Electroconvulsive Therapy
http://www.livescience.com/57507-history...erapy.html
EXCERPT: [...] The public grief over Carrie Fisher's death was not only for an actress who played one of the most iconic roles in film history. It was also for one who spoke with wit and courage about her struggle with mental illness. In a way, the fearless General Leia Organa on screen was not much of an act.
Fisher's bravery, though, was not just in fighting the stigma of her illness, but also in declaring in her memoir "Shockaholic" her voluntary use of a stigmatized treatment: electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), often known as shock treatment.
Many critics have portrayed ECT as a form of medical abuse, and depictions in film and television are usually scary. Yet many psychiatrists, and more importantly, patients, consider it to be a safe and effective treatment for severe depression and bipolar disorder. Few medical treatments have such disparate images.
I am a historian of psychiatry, and I have published a book on the history of ECT. I had, like many people, been exposed only to the frightening images of ECT, and I grew interested in the history of the treatment after learning how many clinicians and patients consider it a valuable treatment. My book asks the question: Why has this treatment been so controversial? ....