Slashdot Mirror
FDA OKs Brain Pacemaker for Depression
Duke Machesne writes "On Friday, the FDA approved a new therapy for the severely depressed who have run out of treatment options: a pacemaker-like implant that sends tiny electric shocks to the brain. The Food and Drug Administration's clearance opens Cyberonics Inc.'s vagus nerve stimulator, or VNS, as a potential treatment for an estimated 4 million Americans with hard-to-treat depression - despite controversy over whether it's really been proven to work."
let the numerous tinfoil hat references begin!
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Shockings will continue until morale improves!
Agile Artisans
...welcome our new micro-electric shock therapy overlords.
No incumbents, not no where, not no how.
Vote them out every term.
Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy, Joy!
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
Just imagine if you got one of these things implanted in your brain and it didn't work at all - that would be extremely depressing. :-)
Electric Monkey Pants
*BZZT*
Vagus baby, YEAA!!
US$0.02++
I'm sure there is something snappy I could say here... but I'm really not in to it today...
I think I'm going to go back to bed
I'm really feeling down. I just don't know how long I can ZOT! Hey, I'm ready to rock and roll! I think I'll become president of the world! But that would mean having to find an apartment in a big city, and I wouldn't see my wife and kids very much, and I probably wouldn't get to watch reruns of Enterprise. Gawd, they cancelled Enterprise, I can't believe it, no more Star Trek, that's it I'm going to open this window and ZOT! Hey, good riddance, goddamn Enterprise, crappy acting, crappy stories, thank goodness there's Battlestar Galactica. Much better writing, interesting stories. And there's Doctor Who too. Great remake. But Christopher Eccleston isn't coming back for the second season. It'll fail for sure, then I won't have anything to watch and I'll sit in this apartment reading Slashdot crap on my computer. How can I deal with this? I think I'll tie rocks to my shoes and ZOT! Hey! That's okay, I've always got Slashdot. Maybe I'll get moded +48183 Insightful for this post, become King of Slashdot and supplant CmdrTaco! Oh, but then people will mock me, and call me a shill, and claim I do nothing but post dupes. I can't stand that. I'd rather ZOT! ZOT! ZOT! ZOT! ZOT!
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Brilliant new treatment for depression: Get Over It! World sucks, things aren't how you'd like them to be: Get Over It! Girlfriend dumped ya, sleeping with your best friend: Get Over It! Apparently living in a modern world means you get depressed a lot, but with my simple plan you just look past the crap and say 'eh, whatever' and Get Over It!
And why is it only for the severely depressed? Why can't the merely morose get it, too?
How about those of us who have just realized that our lives are going nowhere, but other than that we're mostly ok? Don't we get any shock treatments?
I think it could help a lot of people get from "mostly happy" to "Wow, this is a great time to be alive!"
And I wonder if it runs Linux.
Personally, when I feel down, I remember the old adages: a gramme in time saves nine. Not to mention, a gramme is better than a damn.
Isn't it great to be an epsilon minus? We even have our own dedicated chatboard, Slashdot, to share our experiences.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
Excuse me, sir, but did you just say butt frenzy?
Because what happens in vagus stays in vagus.
it's because they don't know the history of psychiatry. and ONLY tom cruise knows the history of psychiatry. and we should be happy, because one day he will be allowed to tell us the history of psychiatry that he knows.
No one needs to be killed over a few miliamps of electricity.
You don't have any idea how bad the electricity prices are here in Nevada.
Just because it CAN be done, doesn't mean it should!
The pleasure button has been a staple of sci-fi and cyberpunk for pretty much as long as both genres have existed. I think they don't even let you in the club unless you've written a story based on one.