This is BrainsWay’s global website. The global website is not intended for persons in the United States and includes information on clinical indications that were not cleared by the FDA, which are subject to further US regulatory review for safety and efficacy. BrainsWay is cleared by the FDA only for patients with MDD who failed to respond to one or more anti-depressants in the current episode, and for patients with OCD as an adjunct treatment.
Prelimbic Stimulation Ameliorates Depressive-Like Behaviors and Increases Regional BDNF Expression in a Novel Drug-Resistant Animal Model of Depression
Journal: Brain Stimulation 9:243-250 (2016)
Authors: H Moshe, R Gal, N Barnea-Ygael, T Gulevsky, U Alyagon, A Zangen
Background:
Approximately one third of all major depression patients fail to respond to conventional pharmacological antidepressants, and brain stimulation methods pose a promising alternative for this population. Recently, based on repeated multifactorial selective inbreeding of rats for depressive-like behaviors, we introduced a novel animal model for MDD. Rats from this Depressive Rat Line (DRL) exhibit inherent depressive-like behaviors, which are correlated with lower levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in specific brain regions. In addition, DRL rats do not respond to antidepressant medication but respond to electroconvulsive treatment, and they can thus be utilized to test the effectiveness of brain stimulation on hereditary, medication-resistant depressive-like behaviors.
Objective:
To test the effect of sub-convulsive electrical stimulation (SCES) of the prelimbic cortex, using TMS-like temporal pattern of stimulation, on depressive-like behaviors and regional BDNF levels in DRL rats.
Method:
SCES sessions were administered daily for 10 days through chronically implanted electrodes. Temporal stimulation parameters were similar to those used in TMS for major depression in human patients. Depressive-like behaviors were assayed after treatment, followed by brain extraction and regional BDNF measurements.
Results:
SCES normalized both the depressive-like behaviors and the reduced BDNF levels observed in DRL rats. Correlation analyses suggest that changes in specific behaviors are mediated, at least in part, by BDNF expression in reward-related brain regions.
Conclusions:
Brain stimulation is effective in a drug-resistant, inherited animal model for depression. BDNF alterations in specific regions may mediate different antidepressant effects.
Related Resources:
Interhemispheric Cortico-cortical Paired Associative Stimulation of the Prefrontal Cortex Jointly Mo...
Background: As advances in neuroimaging further our understanding of the brain's functional connectivity, neuropsychology has moved away from a regional approach of attributing behavior to a specific...- Deep Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation for the Treatment of Addiction: Electric Field Distribution M...
Background: Deep Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (dTMS) is a neurostimulation technique for deep brain structures that has recently been successfully applied in the clinic for treatment of addictio... - The Role of Medial Prefrontal Cortex in Theory of Mind: A Deep rTMS Study
Background: Neuroimaging studies suggest that the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) plays a central role in cognitive theory of mind (ToM). Objective: To assess more definitively, using deep transcra...