Brain ultrasound to help treat depression, anxiety
Sending ultrasound waves to specific areas of the brain can alter patients' moods, a new study has found.
The discovery by researchers has led them conduct further investigations with the hope that this technique could one day be used to treat conditions such as depression and anxiety.
Hameroff became interested in applying ultrasound to the human brain when he read about a study by a colleague , who found physiological and behavioural effects in animals of ultrasound applied to the scalp, with the waves passing through the skull.
Hameroff knew that ultrasound vibrates in megahertz frequencies at about 10 million vibrations per second, and that microtubules, protein structures inside brain neurons linked to mood and consciousness, also resonate in megahertz frequencies. Hameroff proposed testing ultrasound treatment for mood on human brains.
"I said to my anaesthesiology colleagues, 'we should try this on chronic pain patient volunteers'," he said.
His colleagues respectfully suggested he try it on himself, first. Hameroff acquiesced.
After 15 seconds with an ultrasound transducer, a standard ultrasound imaging device, placed against his head, Hameroff felt no effect.
"I put it down and said, 'well, that's not going to work.' And then about a minute later I started to feel like I'd had a martini," he said.
His mood was elevated for the next hour or two, Hameroff said.
Aware that his experience could be a placebo effect, an imagined effect derived from his expectation to feel a change, Hameroff set out to properly test the treatment with a clinical trial.
With research committee and hospital approval, and patient informed consent, Hameroff and his colleagues applied transcranial ultrasound to 31 chronic pain patients, in a double blind study in which neither doctor nor subject knew if the ultrasound machine had been switched on or off.
Patients reported improvements in mood for up to 40 minutes following treatment with brain ultrasound, compared with no difference in mood when the machine was switched off.
The researchers confirmed the patients' subjective reports of increases in positive mood with a Visual Analog Mood Scale, or VAMS, a standardized objective mood scale often used in psychological studies.
The discovery may open the door to a possible range of new applications of ultrasound in medicine.
ps- those interested in recipes are free to view my blog-
http://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com/
for info about knee replacement, you can view my blog-
http://Knee replacement-stick club.blogspot.com/
for crochet designs
http://My Crochet Creations.blogspot.com/
I've not given details about designs, but those interested are free to mail me for the same.
The discovery by researchers has led them conduct further investigations with the hope that this technique could one day be used to treat conditions such as depression and anxiety.
Hameroff became interested in applying ultrasound to the human brain when he read about a study by a colleague , who found physiological and behavioural effects in animals of ultrasound applied to the scalp, with the waves passing through the skull.
Hameroff knew that ultrasound vibrates in megahertz frequencies at about 10 million vibrations per second, and that microtubules, protein structures inside brain neurons linked to mood and consciousness, also resonate in megahertz frequencies. Hameroff proposed testing ultrasound treatment for mood on human brains.
"I said to my anaesthesiology colleagues, 'we should try this on chronic pain patient volunteers'," he said.
His colleagues respectfully suggested he try it on himself, first. Hameroff acquiesced.
After 15 seconds with an ultrasound transducer, a standard ultrasound imaging device, placed against his head, Hameroff felt no effect.
"I put it down and said, 'well, that's not going to work.' And then about a minute later I started to feel like I'd had a martini," he said.
His mood was elevated for the next hour or two, Hameroff said.
Aware that his experience could be a placebo effect, an imagined effect derived from his expectation to feel a change, Hameroff set out to properly test the treatment with a clinical trial.
With research committee and hospital approval, and patient informed consent, Hameroff and his colleagues applied transcranial ultrasound to 31 chronic pain patients, in a double blind study in which neither doctor nor subject knew if the ultrasound machine had been switched on or off.
Patients reported improvements in mood for up to 40 minutes following treatment with brain ultrasound, compared with no difference in mood when the machine was switched off.
The researchers confirmed the patients' subjective reports of increases in positive mood with a Visual Analog Mood Scale, or VAMS, a standardized objective mood scale often used in psychological studies.
The discovery may open the door to a possible range of new applications of ultrasound in medicine.
ps- this is only for information, always consult you physician before having any particular food/ medication/exercise/other remedies.
http://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com/
for info about knee replacement, you can view my blog-
http://Knee replacement-stick club.blogspot.com/
for crochet designs
http://My Crochet Creations.blogspot.com/
I've not given details about designs, but those interested are free to mail me for the same.
Labels: anxiety, behavioural, Brain, Depression, effects, moods, positive, psychological, scalp, studies, transcranial, ultrasound, vibrations, Visual Analog Mood Scale(VAMS)
posted by G S Iyer at 6:18 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home