Major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder are among the most serious psychiatric disorders with high prevalence and illness-related disability. Even with the multitude of methods used to treat depression, a significant portion of patients fails to respond, resulting in an estimated 1–3% prevalence of treatment-resistant depression (TRD). The most efficacious therapeutic alternative for TRD is an electroconvulsive therapy, which helps, however, in only about half of TRD cases. Deep brain stimulation (DBS), which is commonly used in neurological diseases, is now being applied as an alternative technique in the treatment of TRD. Nevertheless, the evidence for the efficacy and safety of DBS in depression is still weak and an optimal approach has yet to be established. Reliable biomarkers of brain abnormality in depression might help determine the suitability and efficacy of DBS treatment and personalized medicine might be the future outlook for DBS treatment of depression. Despite advanced neuroimaging methods developed in recent years, the pathophysiological mechanisms of depression remain poorly understood.
The main goal of the project was to provide necessary knowledge about neurobiology of major depressive disorder. We studied the human brain to gain insights and collect information on objective biomarkers of depression. We found conspicuous characteristics of the brain networks affected by depression using electroencephalography. Better characterization of the pathophysiology of depression can improve diagnostics and consequently ameliorate treatment of depressive patients. Objective evaluation of the brain impairment in depression could be potentially useful for early identification of the illness that could help better management of the disease. Faster and more efficacious treatment would lead to faster reintegration of patients into the society, thus reducing economic burdens of the disease.
