Posted by Ritch on March 19, 2002, at 23:28:26
In reply to Left / Right Hemisphere Imbalance = Depression ???, posted by SLS on March 19, 2002, at 7:58:36
I think I was involved indirectly. I went and done a search, then a google search and "refound" the source of all of it:
http://www.abc.net.au/quantum/s161005.htm
> Quite a while ago, a thread appeared on PB describing mood illness resulting from an imbalance between left and right hemispheres of the brain. I think Noa posted it, but I don't remember. Wasn't it the "place an ice cube in one ear" thing?
>
> I'd like to see what you guys think about this.
>
>
> - Scott
>
>
> -------------------------------------------
>
>
> Report Supports 'Dual Brain' Theory of Depression
>
> Reuters Health - Reuters Report Supports 'Dual Brain' Theory of Depression Fri Mar 15, 2:06 PM ET
>
> By Alison McCook
>
> NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Depressed patients who are not responding to treatment may benefit from a technique that activates one side of the brain, according to a recent report.
>
> The study findings lend support to an intriguing theory: that people have a "dual aspect" to their personalities, and each aspect resides primarily in one brain hemisphere.
>
> According to lead author Dr. Fredric Schiffer of McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts, these personality components can interact with each other normally. But in depressed patients, one hemisphere becomes "healthier" than the other, and patients begin to harbor "a troubled personality associated with one of the hemispheres," he explained.
>
> In his own practice, Schiffer tests which side of the brain is healthier by asking patients to wear goggles that restrict vision to mostly one eye, stimulating the opposite hemisphere.
>
> Schiffer told Reuters Health that stimulating one side of the patient's brain has an immediate--and often dramatic--effect on their emotions. Patients whose healthy side has been activated often report happier feelings, while stimulation of the "troubled" hemisphere can increase psychiatric symptoms, such as anxiety or depression.
>
> "In my experience, this is hard to take seriously unless you've actually witnessed it. But the fact that someone can be visibly upset, or start to cry, whenever they look out one side, is very compelling evidence," he noted.
>
> Schiffer has authored numerous papers and a book describing the dual brain hypothesis. In the most recent study, published in the March issue of Neuropsychiatry, Neuropsychology and Behavioral Neurology, researchers use Schiffer's goggles to detect the healthiest side of patients' brains prior to administering an investigational treatment that activates one hemisphere. The investigators sought to determine whether knowing which side of the brain was "healthy" would help predict how the patient would respond to the treatment.
>
> In 37 patients who were severely depressed and resistant to other treatments, those who felt better when looking through their right eyes--suggesting they have a healthy left hemisphere-- responded well to a therapy directed to the left side of their brains.
>
> Two weeks after treatment with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)--in which magnetic fields are passed through the skull, creating electrical currents in brain tissue-these patients reported an average decrease in their symptoms of 42%. In addition, nine patients said they had improved by at least 50%, which indicates a remission of their condition.
>
> Alternatively, patients who appeared to have a healthier right hemisphere and received TMS to the left side of their brains experienced a decrease in their depression of only 11%, which is considered treatment failure.
>
> In his practice, Schiffer tries to treat patients who appear to have a troubled hemisphere by helping them understand that part of their brain is emotionally damaged. "Treatment becomes the treatment of the child inside, the troubled mind, and educating it, teaching it that it's safer or more valued than it thought it was," he said.
>
> Equally challenging, Schiffer admitted, is trying to convince other psychiatric researchers of the validity of the dual brain theory. "I think my goggles make people uncomfortable. The whole concept seems kind of ridiculous somehow...and yet these data come right down on it."
>
> Dr. Cary Savage of the Massachusetts General Hospital's Cognitive Neuroscience Group told Reuters Health that he agreed these findings are "provocative," but was not convinced that Schiffer's goggles can activate primarily one hemisphere. The two hemispheres are connected, Savage explained, so while a visual stimulus seen through one eye initially reaches one hemisphere, it spreads throughout the whole brain within milliseconds. So if patients report feeling anxiety while looking through one visual field, Savage reasoned that is not likely due to something restricted solely to one hemisphere.
>
> However, Savage could not think of any other mechanism to explain Schiffer's continued results with the goggles, and said he looks forward to seeing if future studies can mirror these interesting findings. If these data "were to hold up in replication," he reasoned, "they would be very important."
>
> SOURCE: Neuropsychiatry, Neuropsychology, and Behavioral Neurology
poster:Ritch
thread:98771
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020318/msgs/98940.html