Good News For Bipolar Depression: SAINT!

SAINT neuromodulation works in the first published open label study

Bipolar depression can be a nightmare. Welcome to The Frontier Psychiatrists. Today, we present yet more evidence that accelerated neuromodulation with fMRI guidance appears to be an effective treatment for bipolar depression.

For general audiences, I'm going to review with bipolar depression is and why it sucks. When you hear the term depression, it can refer to more than one underlying biology. In the psychiatry, we know that “unipolar depression” —when there has never been a manic episode—response differently to treatment than bipolar depression — depression in someone who has also had mania in the past.

Virtually all the drugs we refer to as antidepressants? None of these work in bipolar depression. It's a different animal. Zoloft, Wellbutrin, Paxil, Remeron, virtually all of them. None of these medicines bring relief from the unbelievable agony of bipolar depression. For years, transcranial magnetic stimulation has not been demonstrated (unambiguously) to be helpful in b…