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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
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Posted by SLS on December 23, 2011, at 14:29:19
Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS)
Since I have all but run out of pharmacological options for treating bipolar depression, I am beginning to think about DBS.
Would anyone like to offer comments?
Thanks.
- Scott
Posted by bleauberry on December 28, 2011, at 17:05:54
In reply to DBS - Any comments?, posted by SLS on December 23, 2011, at 14:29:19
I would try a new approach if I reached the end of the pharm road....well, actually that is what happened so I didn't have a choice. For me, ECT was the great hope to replace failed drugs. But of course, that didn't work either. Then a Lyme doctor has the balls to tell me I don't have depression it just feels like it.....those are the toxins of infectious organisms, not a shortage of neurotransmitters. I never really fully embraced any of that stuff as relevant until I felt things change for the better when I was blindly treating ghost infections. Removing toxins via DMSA and foods known to be cleansing, that all helped too. I think it all set the stage for Rhodiola to rise as the star of the show, because in 3 previous trys I could not tolerate it or it made me feel worse.
In other words, maybe one or some of the substances already tried would have worked a better.....except there was something else standing in their way. What that something else is, I don't know.
For me, it is something within the inflammation/immune system circuits, because unless I give those attention, none of the antidepressant stategies work at all....but when I give attention to those things, the antidepressant stuff actually does some good. So I think it is all more complicated and intertwined than many people may be aware. I don't know much about DBS but it is an option.
So I don't Scott. I think at this point we, you, me, whoever, would benefit by branching out, trying new things, experiment, and be suspicious of things that have been overlooked, missed, debatable test results. I mean, modern prescription pharmacies in China have drawer fulls of all sorts of different roots, leaves, flowers, stems....all medicines with specific purposes that have proved themselves over centuries. I'm just saying, the world of healing I think is a lot bigger than the world of USA medicine, so when it seems we are stuck on a road that just keeps going round and round over and over and we aren't getting anywhere, maybe it makes sense to me anyway to try new/additional roads.
Posted by SLS on December 28, 2011, at 20:02:37
In reply to Re: DBS - Any comments?, posted by bleauberry on December 28, 2011, at 17:05:54
> I'm just saying, the world of healing I think is a lot bigger than the world of USA medicine
Agreed.
Thanks for offering your insights.
- Scott
Posted by Lamdage22 on January 3, 2012, at 5:06:48
In reply to Re: DBS - Any comments? » bleauberry, posted by SLS on December 28, 2011, at 20:02:37
My depression obviously stems from candida, which in turn stems from repeated childhood trauma and a combination of bad dr decisions.. lifestyle. Nr. 1: PTSD from multiple childhood trauma. consequence: Candida infection, weakened immune systhem.. antibiotics for sth that was not even an infection at all. and so on and so forth.
A full course of DBS costs 10k from what i have heard.
Im almost considering this though, because now that i know i am completely poisoned by a nasty candida strain.. i gotta detox and my liver must not be preoccupied with clearing out nardil and ambien. I am on the lookout for alternatives, too.. liver friendly ones.I would try DBS for sure.. did you ever investigate these "ghost infections" further or is it sth that traditional testing cannot determine?
Have you tried a dr that uses kinesiology testing?
I am not kidding.. the guy who did that on me figured out 4 out of 5 of my food allergys by something that seemed like a bad movie ripoff. I didnt tell him i had those.
He told me i have candida one year ago. Unfortunately it needed more than that to believe it and now the condition has grown worse. It seems to me that my partial "nardil poopout" is actually simply a worsening of the underlying condition, which is candida.Hes a traditional medicine doctor gone holistic over the years.
I have seen your plight with having to come to the realization that nardil wasnt really doing squat for you,.. Hope things will work out for you!
Let us know what you find out and end up trying..
Posted by psychobot5000 on May 29, 2012, at 2:46:04
In reply to DBS - Any comments?, posted by SLS on December 23, 2011, at 14:29:19
> Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS)
>
> Since I have all but run out of pharmacological options for treating bipolar depression, I am beginning to think about DBS.
>
> Would anyone like to offer comments?
>
> Thanks.
>
>
> - ScottScott,
Thought I'd take up this old post. Better late than never? For what it's worth, I think DBS is the most promising treatment out there right now--those pilot studies all got good results.
Therapeutic neuromodulation works. VNS works (slowly, but remarkably), TMS works (unclear how well), and ECT works (though the cost-benefit is unclear). Don't know much about cortical stimulation, other than that it's obviously analagous to DBS but the stimulation is superficial rather than deep within the brain, and it's at a more primitive stage of research. Anyway, all this is a roundabout way of my saying that the overall method of intervention is, in my view, well-established as efficacious, and that DBS appears to be much the best of bunch. If you can get it, I'd encourage you to go for it. There are worse things than having a hole drilled in the base of your skull and two batteries the size of silver dollars (but thicker) implanted in your chest, with wires leading to the aforementioned hole. Seriously. Like...the side-effects some get from antidepressants. Those are probably much worse, because they prevent you from leading a quasi-normal life.
And I doubt DBS will induce mania :)
The only other downsides I'm aware of are the small yearly chance a wire may eventually break, the necessity to replace the pulse generators every two years or so (more surgery, yay!), and the possibility of intracranial infection, which is also small.
Have you any chance to try TMS first?
Best,
pb5000
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