DRUG-FREE TREATMENT
FOR DEPRESSSION
“I feel like I’ve been in a dark tunnel for most of my life,”
says 69-year-old Daniele Brege. Daniele has suffered a
deep lingering depression from bipolar disorder and while
edications have made life bearable, they didn’t
ompletely lift the gloom.
In 2018, her psychiatrist suggested she try a
ew treatment called trans-cranial direct current
timulation (tDCS), in which electrodes, placed
n the scalp for about 20 minutes, deliver a non-
nvasive, low voltage jolt to the part of the brain
elated to depression’s symptoms.
Daniele says tDCS has been a ‘miracle’
or her. “I became the person I used to be before
was ill.” She and her psychiatrist are now
iscussing the possibility of reducing her
epression medication.Slowing Parkinson’s Decline
In recent yearsresearchers began noticing
a side-effect among people who took a type
of blood pressure medication called calcium
channel blockers. A large study found that
29 per cent fewer of them than expected
developed Parkinson’s disease. Even among
those who already had the disease, these
drugs appeared to slow its progression.
Now researchers are testing the most
promising of these drugs, isradipine, in a
clinical trial. If the trial confirms that it can
slow functional decline, “it will change the way we treat Parkinson’s
disease,” says Dr Tanya Simuni, director of the Northwestern Medicine
Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders Center in Chicago.
And since isradipine is in wide use already, it could be made available
quickly to those who need it.
TRUE
STORYPHOTO: COURTESY OF DANIELE BREGE42 Augus t 2019
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