Cited by 160Neurological disorders and treatmentsTreatment of Major DepressionObsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorders

Deep Brain Stimulation of the Human Reward System for Major Depression—Rationale, Outcomes and Outlook

Open access
Schlaepfer, Thomas E, Bewernick, Bettina H, Kayser, Sarah, Hurlemann, Rene, Coenen, Volker A·2014·Neuropsychopharmacology

Abstract

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) as a putative approach for treatment-resistant depression (TRD) has now been researched for about a decade. Several uncontrolled studies--all in relatively small patient populations and different target regions-have shown clinically relevant antidepressant effects in about half of the patients and very recently, DBS to a key structure of the reward system, the medial forebrain bundle, has yielded promising results within few days of stimulation and at much lower stimulation intensities. On the downside, DBS procedures in regions are associated with surgical risks (eg, hemorrhage) and psychiatric complications (suicidal attenuation, hypomania) as well as high costs. This overview summarizes research on the mechanisms of brain networks with respect to psychiatric diseases and--as a novelty--extrapolates to the role of the reward system in DBS for patients with treatment-resistant depression. It further evaluates relevant methodological aspects of today's research in DBS for TRD. On the scientific side, the reward system has an important yet clearly under-recognized role in both neurobiology and treatment of depression. On the methodological side of DBS research in TRD, better animal models are clearly needed to explain clinical effects of DBS in TRD. Larger sample sizes, long-term follow-up and designs including blinded sham control are required to draw final conclusions on efficacy and side effects. Practical research issues cover study design, patient tracking, and the discussion of meaningful secondary outcome measures.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1038/npp.2014.28

Cites

100 of 100 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

1 of the 101 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Schlaepfer, T. E., Bewernick, B. H., Kayser, S., Hurlemann, R., & Coenen, V. A.
Affiliations
  • Johns Hopkins University (US)
  • University Hospital Bonn (DE)
  • University Medical Center Freiburg (DE)
Corresponding author
Schlaepfer, Thomas E
Venue
Neuropsychopharmacology
Published
2014-02-11
Volume
39
Issue
6
Pages
1303-1314
ISSN
  • 0893-133X (ISSN-L)
  • 1740-634X
OpenAlex
W2120569800
Cited by
160
References
101
Citations by year
2026: 3 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 26 · 2017: 16 · 2016: 17 · 2015: 20 · 2014: 10 · 2013: 2
FWCI
2.88
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Neuropsychopharmacology (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
  • Medtronic
  • Hope for Depression Research Foundation
  • Medtronic Europe
  • Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
  • Volkswagen Foundation
  • Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Neurology › Neurological disorders and treatments
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Pharmacology › Treatment of Major Depression
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorders
Keywords
deep brain stimulation, treatment-resistant depression, reward systems, medial forebrain bundle, antidepressant effects, surgical risk, hypomania, animal models of depression, long-term follow-up, secondary outcome measures
MeSH terms
Animals, Brain, Major Depressive Disorder, Depressive Disorder, Major, Humans, Neural Pathways, Reward, Deep Brain Stimulation

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review