The Discovery Health Channels Medical Incredible series will air a segment about a new FDA-approved Vagus Nerve Stimulation therapy treatment for chronic depression on June 26th at 9 p.m. EDT. I am featured in the segemnt, a former sufferer of chronic depression and patient in the study of vagus nerve stimulation therapy for chronic depression. The Discovery Health Channel segment will also include an interview with Charles Conway, M.D., Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at St. Louis University Hospital and lead study investigator for the clinical trial. Dr. Conway will explain this 90-minute outpatient procedure and how vagus nerve stimulation favorably modulates those key areas of the brain responsible for mood and depression in a more robust way than traditional antidepressants. The clinical trial that I became became a part of was to determine if vagus nerve stimulation would help those suffering from treatment-resistant depression (TRD). I was one of 200 patients from 20 different hospitals throughout the United States who participated in this trial. The average patient in the study had suffered lifetime depression for 25 years. Unlike most standard clinical trials, for a patient to be considered as a study subject for this trial, they had to have failed to adequately respond to all legally available antidepressants. The patients (including me) who were enrolled for this trial had the severest cases of TRD and were deemed the most difficult to treat. On April 4, 2001, I had the vagus nerve stimulator implanted in my upper left chest. Over the course of several months, with preset stimulation to his left vagus nerve, I went from seeing no hope of anything good happening to him in the future to being only occasionally pessimistic about his future, believing that for the most part things would get better. Gradually he began to have an optimistic view of his future, and now he says his life is normal, full of joy and genuine happiness. I know that both patients and family members will find the segment educational about vagus nerve stimulation therapy for depression. |
