How far would you go to get relief from depression? A therapist's office for some cognitive

behavioral therapy? A doctor's office or a psychiatrist to get some selective serotonin re-uptake

inhibitor medication? What if that's not enough? And you have what's termed treatment-resistant

depression? Then what do you do?

Would you go so far as to get a device, the size of a small cookie,

implanted in your body that sends jolts of electricity to an important cranial nerve?

Sounds invasive, maybe a little scary.

But what if I told you that this implant works really well as a

means of addressing depression that hasn't responded to other treatments? Because I am telling you that.

This implant is very effective, according to new information. It's depression mode. I'm John Moe. I'm

glad you're here.

A little later in the show, I'll be speaking with actor and television show maker Kit Williamson about his new series Unconventional.

In it, Kit, who is a man dealing with depression and anxiety in real life, plays a man dealing with depression and anxiety as he navigates life and

relationships. But first, let's talk about vagal nerve stimulation. Research has recently

been conducted at Washington University in St. Louis on the use of

implanted technology to stimulate the body's vagus nerve. The results of the study have shown that

the treatment is extremely effective in treating treatment-resistant depression, and the scope of

the study, combined with its findings,

could clear the way for this treatment option to be more widely available and more likely to be

covered by insurance. Maybe it will help you when nothing else has. Dr. Charles Conway is a professor

of psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine and the principal investigator of the study.

Dr. Charles Conway, welcome to DePresh Mode. Thank you very much. I'm going to get to your research

...