In a 2023 Gallup poll, more than one in four people reported having a depression diagnosis at some point in their life. Despite how common the illness is, it remains widely undertreated. At SXSW, panelists at the Revolutionizing Mental Healthcare with Implantable Devices session said they want to break the stigma surrounding depression and alleviate its effects with neuroscience.
“If it’s any other organ that gets sick, they get an arm put around them, they will get a leave of absence from work,” Greg Hansch, executive director of National Alliance on Mental Illness Texas said. “But people with brain illnesses get treated differently, and unfortunately, the media has reinforced many of those stereotypes and negative attitudes that exist around mental health conditions.”
Many illnesses, especially physical illnesses, have clear symptoms, but depression symptoms vary person by person. Though depression is typically conflated with sadness, it affects the whole body, panelists said.
“In many, many ways, major depression is like the Parkinson’s disease of the limbic circuitry of the brain,” neurosurgeon Brian Kopell said. “So, if it’s a brain illness, and we can really move the ball ahead for our patients with Parkinson’s, we can do the same with our patients with depression.”
As the neuroscience field has expanded over the past decades, there have been breakthroughs in its connection to psychiatry. In 1987, deep brain stimulation (DBS) was discovered, which is essentially a pacemaker for abnormal areas of the brain. Since its discovery, it has treated thousands with Parkinson’s and tremor.
DBS is also beginning to successfully treat depression. Psychiatrist Patricio Riva Posse detailed an experience treating a patient who had tried other electroconvulsive therapy courses, but none sustained their positive effects until she underwent DBS treatment.
“She stays on stable, tolerable doses of medications that don’t have side effects for her, and she maintains this.” Posse said. “The deep brain stimulation is a battery that continuously delivers a small amount of electricity … she has now a rechargeable battery that she has had for 10 years.”
However, DBS isn’t a magic solution. Rather, it is like a cast for a broken leg; people with depression are still encouraged to undergo rehabilitation processes, such as therapy and meditation, in order for the stimulation to become more effective.
Additionally, DBS is expensive. Implanting neurostimulation technologies can cost between $35,000 and $50,000 on average, and, according to a 2024 National Health Interview Survey, over 26 million Americans lack health insurance. However, panelists hope that its accessibility increases in the near future.
“Technology, over time, gets cheaper and better. That’s one of the sort of hallmarks of technology, and number two … as long as the effect size is of a certain amount, these devices tend to be more cost effective than medications in the long run,” Kopell said. “If you have those forces combining, then ultimately that’s a better scenario for more access.”
Science and a Happy Life
Telling the Story of Science
Thursday 13, 11:30am, Austin Convention Center Room 9ABC
Navigating Social Media and Mental Health: A Meet Up with Influencers and Experts
Thursday 13, 1pm, Hilton Austin Downtown, Room 410
Keynote: Don’t Die With Bryan Johnson (A Blueprint for Humanity)
Thursday 13, 4pm, Austin Convention Center, Ballroom D
This article appears in March 14 • 2025.