Study reveals shared brain network between depression and heart rate deceleration
Paving the way for targeted depression treatment
(Web Desk) - Researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, part of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, have uncovered compelling evidence of a shared brain network between depression and heart rate deceleration.
This discovery holds significant promise for refining Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) therapy, offering new avenues for personalized treatment of depression without the need for expensive brain scans.
The study, conducted on 14 individuals without depressive symptoms, shed light on the intricate relationship between mood and physiological responses.
By analyzing data from these participants, researchers found that TMS, a non-invasive procedure that targets specific brain regions associated with depression, also influenced heart rate patterns.
This revelation implies that clinicians could potentially target these regions without relying on costly and seldom-used brain imaging scans.
Senior author Shan Siddiqi, MD, of the Brigham’s Department of Psychiatry and the Center for Brain Circuit Therapeutics, said, “The idea first developed during a conference in Croatia where researchers from the Netherlands presented heart-brain coupling data. They showed that TMS can transiently lower the heart rate and matter where you stimulate.”
“The most exciting part of the study for him is the potential to give the rest of the world easier access to this precision-targeted treatment for depression. We can do so many things with the advanced technology available here in Boston to help people with their symptoms. But some of those things couldn’t easily get to the rest of the world before.”
Through meticulous analysis, researchers pinpointed ten distinct brain locations, categorized as "connected areas," each with varying degrees of efficacy for depression treatment. Subsequent investigation into the effects of stimulating these locations on heart rate provided crucial insights. By identifying a unique treatment site within the brain, this breakthrough promises to revolutionize the personalization of TMS therapy for depression.
Eva Dijkstra, MSc, lead author, said, “We wanted to see if there would be mostly heart-brain coupling in the connected areas. For 12 out of 14 usable data sets, we found we would have a very high accuracy of defining an area connected by just measuring heart rate during brain stimulation.”
Eliminating the need for an MRI scan before treatment streamlines the therapeutic process, making it more accessible and efficient for patients.
This advancement could potentially alleviate the burden of lengthy diagnostic procedures and expedite the delivery of much-needed depression treatment.
Siddiqi said the findings from this study could also be used to help develop treatments that may eventually be useful to cardiologists and emergency doctors in a clinical setting.
