Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and Alleghany Health Network (AHN) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, developed a new, minimally invasive deep brain stimulation therapy to address various mental health conditions. The researchers refer to the new technique as “DeepFocus,” which uses trans-nasal stimulation to achieve more accurate electrical stimulation in the brain.

DeepFocus

DeepFocus takes advantage of the thin bones between the nasal cavity and the brain to conduct stronger electrical stimulation. According to the researchers, these pathways are highly conductive, which provides more accurate electric fields in deep brain regions compared to a conventional scalp electrode.

As a result, the method enables more efficient and lower-risk targeting of deep brain structures to help multiple conditions, such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and substance abuse disorder. According to the researchers, there is potential for short and long-term treatment with DeepFocus.

In addition, they say there are different methods of delivery for different types of conditions. For example, chronic conditions that require persistent treatment could use an implant to deliver the stimulation, while acute treatment could be delivered with an endoscopic insertion and removal of the device.

Treating these kinds of neurological conditions with implanted electrodes in deep brain regions has been done before, however, the methods are generally complex and highly invasive. The researchers say the highly invasive surgeries carry a heavy risk of intracranial hemorrhage and infection. In addition, they say the traditional method is not “steerable,” meaning that once the electrodes are implanted in the brain, the stimulation target can’t be changed.

Noninvasive Approach

“Early results of invasive deep brain stimulation in treating neuropsychiatric conditions have been very promising,” said Pulkit Grover (Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA), the senior author of this study. “But the sophisticated surgery required for invasive deep brain stimulation technology makes it unlikely to be widely adopted.”

There are noninvasive techniques, such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), transcranial focused ultrasound stimulation (tFUS), and transcranial electrical stimulation (TES), that have low risks and are steerable, but they’re not as effective as implanted electrodes. The researchers state that TMS and TES can cause high scalp pain because of more intense electric currents.

Researchers from this study claim that DeepFocus offers a minimally invasive solution that is accurate, less painful, and steerable.

“Our minimally invasive, low-risk approach, which can be implemented in an outpatient setting, presents a scalable and widely applicable solution,” Grover added.