Editor\u2019s note: The following article discusses themes of depression and suicide. If you or someone you know is struggling, free and confidential support is available 24\/7 by calling or texting 988.<\/p>\n
CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) \u2014 Researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina said a breakthrough treatment for severe depression is helping some patients recover in days rather than months, offering new hope for people who have struggled to find relief through traditional therapies.<\/p>\n
Depression is one of the leading causes of disability worldwide; researchers said it affects far more than a person\u2019s mood.<\/p>\n
\u201cMajor depressive disorder is a big deal,\u201d Dr. Baron Short, medical director of MUSC Health\u2019s Brain Stimulation Service, said. \u201cOne out of five people have major depression at some point in their life. It\u2019s a bigger deal than just feeling sad or having a difficult situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Short said the condition can affect nearly every aspect of a person\u2019s life.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is where people have disruption in their sleep and their energy. They feel hopeless. They may even want to die,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Despite decades of treatment advances, depression continues to have a significant impact on patients and health care systems.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe challenge is, despite medication, major depressive disorder still serves as the primary cause of disability worldwide, and there\u2019s about $210 billion being spent to remedy that,\u201d Short said.<\/p>\n
While antidepressant medications help many patients, Short said their effectiveness declines when initial treatments fail.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt best, about half of people get better with medication,\u201d he said. \u201cBy the time somebody has tried their first medication, about 30% of people get well. With a second medication, it\u2019s about 27%. The third drops to 14%, and by the fourth medication, there\u2019s about a 7% chance it will work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those statistics leave many patients searching for other options.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of people suffering,\u201d Short said. \u201cWe know that every 40 seconds worldwide, somebody dies by suicide, and most of those people are dealing with depression.\u201d<\/p>\n
For patients who do not respond to medication or therapy, researchers are increasingly looking to treatments like Stanford Accelerated Intelligent Neuromodulation Therapy, or SAINT.<\/p>\n
SAINT is an advanced form of transcranial magnetic stimulation, commonly known as TMS. The treatment uses magnetic pulses to stimulate brain circuits linked to mood that often become less active in people with depression. MUSC researchers helped pioneer TMS technology in the 1990s, but traditional TMS treatments typically require daily sessions over four to six weeks.<\/p>\n
SAINT is focused on individualized, targeted treatment. Using MRI scans to create a personalized map of each patient\u2019s brain, physicians can precisely target the area most connected to depression. Patients receive 10 treatment sessions a day over five days.<\/p>\n
Short compares the process to exercising a muscle.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a little bit like getting exercise,\u201d he said. \u201cYou exercise the brain for about 10 minutes, you take a 50-minute break. You exercise the brain, take a 50-minute break. So we do that for 10 sessions a day for five days.\u201d<\/p>\n
Researchers said many patients begin meeting the criteria for depression remission in as little as two-and-a-half days.<\/p>\n
Short believes advances like SAINT could represent a major shift in the way depression is treated and discussed.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we do these treatments and get people to recover, we\u2019re going to move to a phase where people can say, \u2018I got really depressed. Maybe I even got suicidal. I got help fast and I recovered quickly within a week,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cThat will help reduce our stigma overall by having much more effective treatments that work so fast.\u201d<\/p>\n
He compared the current moment in depression treatment to advances that transformed heart disease care.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere we hope to go is much like what we would see with heart disease,\u201d Short said. \u201cPeople used to get heart attacks and there wasn\u2019t a whole lot you could do. Now you can get stents in your heart and people can recover very quickly. We\u2019re at the beginning of being able to do that with depression.\u201d<\/p>\n
Instead of allowing depression to disrupt lives for months or years, Short said treatments like SAINT can help patients recover much faster.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead of having people sick for weeks, months, years, becoming disabled, losing their work, losing their families, losing their life, we\u2019re able to get people back into recovery within a week,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is a miracle.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the treatment began as a research innovation, it is already available to patients at MUSC and is covered by Medicare and Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina.<\/p>\n
Short said expanding access to this therapy is personal.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, this is not a job. This is a mission,\u201d he said. \u201cMUSC has a mission to do our best to help our community and spread this as far as we can to help people recover and get their lives back.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said some of the most rewarding moments come from seeing patients achieve milestones they once thought were impossible.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s quite amazing to see someone who says, \u2018I didn\u2019t think I would survive past age 16,\u2019 and then you give them this treatment and now they\u2019re graduating from high school,\u201d Short said.<\/p>\n
Short also hopes the treatment will help change how people view depression.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people deal with depression and feel like it might be their fault or that they have a spiritual or psychological problem,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He emphasized that severe depression is a medical condition that deserves treatment.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the base of this, when the symptoms get really severe, it\u2019s a biological problem,\u201d Short said. \u201cIt\u2019s okay to get treatment, and you deserve to get treatment. You deserve to get well.\u201d<\/p>\n