It looks a little weird science but the headpiece that
Susan Mikel John Donne's daily is giving her head peace,
peace and relief from the deep debilitating depressio
from which she suffered most of her life. I had a very
very stressful, overwhelmingly stressful childhood at a
violent father and at 11 was the first time I had
suicidal ideation. How old are you now, 68. So I've
never gotten past the ideation phase. I've never
attempted suicide but I certain have been a meshed in
the you know ideation. Mikel John, an artist and
retired college professor is one of nearly three
million adults in America suffering from depressi
that does not respond to medication. But one of a very
small group just several 100 trying an at home medical
treatment involving electrical stimulation of part of
the brain. How many medications have you tried 10 I'd
say 10. I have always been very very eager to do what
it takes to get out of this. So she tried ketamine mos
commonly used in anesthesia. Working over $16,000 out
of pocket to see whether the new psychedelic tre
now being offered in hundreds of US clinics could
provide her with some relief. So that lasted for about
you know three days and then it's right back again back
again to suicidal ideation. The a few months ago john
heard about a new treatment protocol once she could try
at home it's provided by a team led by lee shar v a
neuropsychologist at N.Y.U. Langone health. She's
pioneering research in transcranial direct current
stimulation T.D.C.S. As a treat for a wide range of
neurological disorders. Depress them I have to
say of all of our experience with T.D.C.S. The re
in the depression trial has been absolutely remarkable
resolving depression with half the patients with
significant improvements and ev more so this is some
of the work where we do the animal stimulation. At h
lab at the City College of new york miram. Dixon
develops cutting edge methods of neuromodulation.
Neuromodulation as a field is the use of devices to
deliver energy in a controlled way to the nervous
system to change the body. When you think something
when you feel something it's all electricity. We're
adding electricity into that mi So it's sort of maybe
not a surprise that an electrical organ is sensitive t
electricity coming in. What do you think is most
exciting right now in this field generally one are more
and more sophisticated technologies that can deliver
energy to the nervous system in a more intentional and
targeted way. It's not supposed to hurt Okay to
demonstrate. Dixon suits me up for an experiment to see
if targeted electrical stimulation can improve one's
concentration while doing a boring right task. Is there
sort of like a sweet spot that you're trying to hit. So
this electrode here is roughly over part your brain
called the dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex. The dorsal
lateral prefrontal cortex is an area of the brain
associated with problem solving attention switching,
memory management and inhibitio Now you're at the
full current. Can you feel it I feel the itchiness
that's for sure. Yeah. Itchiness where the electrode
touches my scalp which went away within a few minutes,
no other sensation beyond that. As far as the game. As
shown to me an analysis afterward, stimulation
to improve my performance a bit. Depression treatments
target the same brain area as that experiment. We have
developed a hypothesis that this energy may not
directly affect the neurons of the brain but actually
affect the blood vessels in your brain. We head over to
an M.R.I. Machine where they sent me up to capture what
the stimulation does inside my head. The areas in red
show an increase in blood flow. But how that may impact
people with depression and other neurological diseases
remains a medical mystery. It works but it also works
on the most difficult people. People who have been
failed by conventional medicine but not everyone but
not everyone know And and then there's the opportunit
right Just like with medications when neuromodu
you're thinking how can I make this work better How can
I capture the people who did not respond And even for
the people who did respond, can I do better for them
Still today Another approach to stimulation called
repetitive transcranial magneti stimulation or TMS is
both FDA approved and widely available but it require
a series of sessions over days or weeks And larger
studies are needed to determine how long improvements
last. I'm very interested in creating something that is
as effective as that. But you can use it at home still
under prescription. N.Y.U. Is using a device developed
in partnership with Dixon that can be positioned
properly remotely. You haven't done this long enough to
know how long it will last. Know. We know that more is
better. We don't know if you reach a plateau or if you
have remission and depression. Do you need to continue
it Do you need to taper it Mikel john has been using it
daily while meditating for more than three months. When
did you start to notice changes after about three weeks
Has the suicide ideation gone away Not completely. You
know you know when I dip I dip and the difference is as
I bounced back in a day or two. Mikel john hopes she'll
continue to be a portrait of hope. Now imagine a chance
that you had an app on your phone connected to a
headpiece and you got a custom a customized treatment
that was going to your brain to treat you individually
The scientists aren't just imagining it. They're
actually working on it right now Jason. This is really
exciting for people especially those you know who think
I don't want to be on these pills and this and that
does insurance cover it How much does this cost It
varies And I think most people who are getting this
treatment right now are getting it for free because
they're in clinical trials. It's still experimental
really. But insurance is paying for certain treatments
that we do know that and it's becoming easier and
easier to get enrolled. And what they're also trying to
do is bring down the cost of doing this by doing it at
home. Then you could really not have this inconvenie
You could have people doing it on a far more frequent
basis rather than having to cut themselves in and be
inside a clinic. Chance, Jason Bellini. Terrific story.
Um, exciting that these people are are pursuing it. And
a lot of people I think feel some hope. Thank you