Welcome back to Reading the Research, where I trawl the Internet to find noteworthy research on autism and related subjects, then discuss it in brief with bits from my own life, research, and observations.
Today's article is encouraging... with a caveat. The study suggests the the recovery process from severe depression may be helped forward with things like neurofeedback, transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), and transcranial current stimulation (tDCS). These are fine. To my horror, though, they are also including electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and magnetic seizure therapy in these recommendations.
So since depression is such a common side effect of living as an autistic person in a world that isn't built for us and often doesn't accept us... let me explain these different therapy types in brief.
Neurofeedback, though not listed in this article, qualifies as a non-surgical brain stimulation. There are active and passive versions, with the active ones trying to teach you how to modulate your own brain waves, and the passive ones politely nudging towards changing them for you. In general, the healthier changes stick, and the bad ones are rejected in favor of past brainwave patterns. It's kind of weird to describe, but I can say from personal experience that it does work if done properly. It's a slow process, which can be preferable if the person would not do well with quick changes to their life. (That includes most autistic people.)
Trans-cranial magnetic stimulation (TMS, or rTMS), is the therapy John Elder Robison undertook more than half a decade ago. Basically, using our understanding of the parts of the brain, scientists can focus a magnetic field onto parts of the brain, suppressing or enhancing their function. Mr. Robison took part in an experimental group where they did this to part of the brain that involves communication. It turned on his ability to read other human beings and their non-verbal social cues. He wrote a short essay about it, and also a whole book which I reviewed later. It didn't take very long to have effects for him, but the quickness of the change had some rather drastic effects on his life, as you can read in his book.
Trans-cranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is kind of like TMS, but instead of magnets, they use direct current electricity. Like TMS, you can enhance or suppress the function of a specific part of the brain. Unlike TMS, which uses the brain's own electricity to make the change, tDCS uses external electricity. There's less research and case studies available for its use specifically for depression, but there is some. Likely the resulting effects would be similar to Mr. Robison's experience, given the similarity of the treatments, but without a larger body of evidence, it's hard to say.
All of the above therapies, I would recommend, albeit cautiously. Do your homework on them. Make sure you're prepared for the quickness or slowness of the effects. Only receive treatment from licensed providers. You get one brain in this life. Currently, we can replace knees, shoulders, even whole limbs. But not brains. Keep that in mind while I talk about the last couple procedures.
Electro-convulsive therapy (ECT) is a very old procedure, with use dating back to the bad old days of insane asylums, where they'd strap the poor person into a chair and essentially electrocute them to induce a seizure. The modern day version involves anesthesia, muscle relaxant, and a lot more care for your comfort, but in the end, is relatively unchanged in its treatment of the brain. It causes a seizure. Seizures are bad, and cause brain damage. That would be why we try to stop them from happening in literally every other part of life. With sufficient brain damage, yes, a person's depression might improve. Or it might get worse. ECT is untargeted. Please don't ever do ECT. There are better options available, such as the ones I listed above.
Magnetic seizure therapy is the more modern-day answer to many criticisms of ECT. Instead of using electricity, it uses magnets to accomplish the same goal: inducing a seizure. It seems to be able to do so in a more targetted fashion than its predecessor. This is a very very new idea, and there isn't a whole lot of research on it as of yet. Given its aim is, y'know, to induce a seizure, also known as brain damage, I really don't recommend you try this experimental therapy either. Opt instead for one of three I listed above ECT.
(Pst! If you like seeing the latest autism-relevant research, visit my Twitter, which has links and brief comments on studies that were interesting, but didn't get a whole Reading the Research article about them.)
Today's article is encouraging... with a caveat. The study suggests the the recovery process from severe depression may be helped forward with things like neurofeedback, transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), and transcranial current stimulation (tDCS). These are fine. To my horror, though, they are also including electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and magnetic seizure therapy in these recommendations.
So since depression is such a common side effect of living as an autistic person in a world that isn't built for us and often doesn't accept us... let me explain these different therapy types in brief.
Neurofeedback, though not listed in this article, qualifies as a non-surgical brain stimulation. There are active and passive versions, with the active ones trying to teach you how to modulate your own brain waves, and the passive ones politely nudging towards changing them for you. In general, the healthier changes stick, and the bad ones are rejected in favor of past brainwave patterns. It's kind of weird to describe, but I can say from personal experience that it does work if done properly. It's a slow process, which can be preferable if the person would not do well with quick changes to their life. (That includes most autistic people.)
Trans-cranial magnetic stimulation (TMS, or rTMS), is the therapy John Elder Robison undertook more than half a decade ago. Basically, using our understanding of the parts of the brain, scientists can focus a magnetic field onto parts of the brain, suppressing or enhancing their function. Mr. Robison took part in an experimental group where they did this to part of the brain that involves communication. It turned on his ability to read other human beings and their non-verbal social cues. He wrote a short essay about it, and also a whole book which I reviewed later. It didn't take very long to have effects for him, but the quickness of the change had some rather drastic effects on his life, as you can read in his book.
Trans-cranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is kind of like TMS, but instead of magnets, they use direct current electricity. Like TMS, you can enhance or suppress the function of a specific part of the brain. Unlike TMS, which uses the brain's own electricity to make the change, tDCS uses external electricity. There's less research and case studies available for its use specifically for depression, but there is some. Likely the resulting effects would be similar to Mr. Robison's experience, given the similarity of the treatments, but without a larger body of evidence, it's hard to say.
All of the above therapies, I would recommend, albeit cautiously. Do your homework on them. Make sure you're prepared for the quickness or slowness of the effects. Only receive treatment from licensed providers. You get one brain in this life. Currently, we can replace knees, shoulders, even whole limbs. But not brains. Keep that in mind while I talk about the last couple procedures.
Electro-convulsive therapy (ECT) is a very old procedure, with use dating back to the bad old days of insane asylums, where they'd strap the poor person into a chair and essentially electrocute them to induce a seizure. The modern day version involves anesthesia, muscle relaxant, and a lot more care for your comfort, but in the end, is relatively unchanged in its treatment of the brain. It causes a seizure. Seizures are bad, and cause brain damage. That would be why we try to stop them from happening in literally every other part of life. With sufficient brain damage, yes, a person's depression might improve. Or it might get worse. ECT is untargeted. Please don't ever do ECT. There are better options available, such as the ones I listed above.
Magnetic seizure therapy is the more modern-day answer to many criticisms of ECT. Instead of using electricity, it uses magnets to accomplish the same goal: inducing a seizure. It seems to be able to do so in a more targetted fashion than its predecessor. This is a very very new idea, and there isn't a whole lot of research on it as of yet. Given its aim is, y'know, to induce a seizure, also known as brain damage, I really don't recommend you try this experimental therapy either. Opt instead for one of three I listed above ECT.
(Pst! If you like seeing the latest autism-relevant research, visit my Twitter, which has links and brief comments on studies that were interesting, but didn't get a whole Reading the Research article about them.)
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