Greek Psychiatrist Offers Depression Treatment

Greek psychiatrist, Dr. Jeff Daskalakis, is one of the research leaders working on a new treatment  for depression. Daskalakis is a psychiatrist at the Center of Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto. He is heading research regarding a modern and safer approach than electroshock treatment, a new method called “seizures treatment.”

Researchers say that they have seen better results in patients having undergone this treatment as nearly 50 percent had positive results. In an article cited in Pubget, Daskalakis explains: “Here we review evidence to suggest that a fruitful, but neglected, strategy for improving rTMS efficacy may be to explore alternatives to the conventional stimulation target in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC.)”

He added that, “The convergent evidence of lesion, stimulation, connectivity, and correlative neuroimaging studies suggests that the DLPFC may have a relatively peripheral role in mood regulation, at least compared to several alternative areas within the prefrontal cortex. In particular, we consider the evidence base in support of four new potential targets for rTMS in depression: dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC), frontopolar cortex (FPC), ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC), and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC).”