New neuroscientific research claims to be the first evidence that actual changes in brain structure are associated with meditation: a thicker cerebral cortex in areas involved with attention and sensory processing, including the prefrontal cortex, used for planning complicated cognitive behaviours.
More than a year after VNS was called “the latest moneymaking gimmick” by the Alliance for Human Research Protection, a new longitudinal study suggests benefits of up to 24 months for those with chronic, treatment resistant depression. Does it matter that one of the study’s lead authors is employed by the only company providing VNS devices?
A brief report from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine suggests that a fMRI scan may be able to predict whether or not cognitive behavioural therapy can help a person suffering from unipolar depression to recover.
A U.S. Senate Finance Committee report says a federal official approved a device to treat persistent depression against the advice of a scientific advisory committee. According to the Senate committee, the official overruled his scientific staff to approve the vagus nerve stimulator device, despite its not having been proved effective against depression in its only clinical trial.
Doctors at the University of Pennsylvania and elsewhere around the US are beginning to offer vagus nerve stimulation, a controversial and expensive new surgical implant, to patients suffering from treatment-resistant depression. While some patients swear by the device, critics point to the lack of clear scientific evidence that the $40,000 vagus nerve stimulation device alleviates depression at all.
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