Cited by 1,027Neurological disorders and treatmentsTreatment of Major DepressionObsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorders

Deep Brain Stimulation to Reward Circuitry Alleviates Anhedonia in Refractory Major Depression

Open access
Schlaepfer, Thomas E, Cohen, Michael X, Frick, Caroline, Kosel, Markus, Brodesser, Daniela, Axmacher, Nikolai, Joe, Alexius Young, Kreft, Martina +2 more·2008·Neuropsychopharmacology

Abstract

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) to different sites allows interfering with dysfunctional network function implicated in major depression. Because a prominent clinical feature of depression is anhedonia--the inability to experience pleasure from previously pleasurable activities--and because there is clear evidence of dysfunctions of the reward system in depression, DBS to the nucleus accumbens might offer a new possibility to target depressive symptomatology in otherwise treatment-resistant depression. Three patients suffering from extremely resistant forms of depression, who did not respond to pharmacotherapy, psychotherapy, and electroconvulsive therapy, were implanted with bilateral DBS electrodes in the nucleus accumbens. Stimulation parameters were modified in a double-blind manner, and clinical ratings were assessed at each modification. Additionally, brain metabolism was assessed 1 week before and 1 week after stimulation onset. Clinical ratings improved in all three patients when the stimulator was on, and worsened in all three patients when the stimulator was turned off. Effects were observable immediately, and no side effects occurred in any of the patients. Using FDG-PET, significant changes in brain metabolism as a function of the stimulation in fronto-striatal networks were observed. No unwanted effects of DBS other than those directly related to the surgical procedure (eg pain at sites of implantation) were observed. Dysfunctions of the reward system--in which the nucleus accumbens is a key structure--are implicated in the neurobiology of major depression and might be responsible for impaired reward processing, as evidenced by the symptom of anhedonia. These preliminary findings suggest that DBS to the nucleus accumbens might be a hypothesis-guided approach for refractory major depression.

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/sj.npp.1301408

Cites

61 of 61 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?

  • Deep brain stimulation targeting the NAc exerts antidepressant, anxiolytic, and hedonic effects, notably in treatment-resistant depression.

    “DBS targeting the NAc was shown to exert antidepressant, anxiolytic, and hedonic effects, notably in treatment-resistant depression (Bewernick et al. 2010; Giacobbe et al. 2009; Schlaepfer et al. 2008).”

    From Neurotrophic factors and neuroplasticity pathways in the pathophysiology and treatment of depression (2018) · cites this paper as Schlaepfer et al. 2008

    The Longer Term Clinical Effects of Stimulation section reports lower depression ratings during nucleus accumbens stimulation in three patients with treatment-resistant depression, and the Immediate Clinical Effects section describes changes consistent with reduced anhedonia. Our copy does not report an anxiolytic effect. The Results section also explicitly says stimulation produced no acute euphoria or ‘liking,’ so ‘hedonic effects’ is supported only in the sense of alleviating anhedonia. (LLM, conf=0.88)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • Deep brain stimulation applied via electrodes situated in the accumbens area/ventral internal capsule improves depressive symptoms in treatment-refractory depression.

    “deep brain stimulation applied via electrodes situated in the accumbens area/ventral internal capsule improves depressive symptoms in treatmentrefractory depression (Malone et al, 2009;Schlaepfer et al, 2008).”

    From Neurocircuitry of Mood Disorders (2010) · cites this paper as Schlaepfer et al, 2008

  • Deep brain stimulation applied via electrodes situated in the accumbens area/ventral internal capsule reportedly improves depressive symptoms in treatment-refractory depression.

    “and that deep brain stimulation applied via electrodes situated in the accumbens area/ventral internal capsule reportedly improves depressive symptoms in treatment-refractory depression (Schlaepfer et al. 2008).”
  • Spatially specific treatments such as deep brain stimulation or transcranial magnetic stimulation show promise for alleviating treatment-resistant depression, including severe cases.

    “Treatments with enhanced spatial specificity such as deep brain stimulation (DBS) or transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), aimed to restore region-specific hypoactivity, show great promise in alleviating treatment-resistant depression in even the most severe cases (2–10).”
  • High frequency deep brain stimulation of the nucleus accumbens shows promise for alleviating treatment-resistant depression, although its mechanism is unclear.

    “High frequency DBS of the NAc, among other regions, shows great promise in alleviating treatment-resistant depression, though its mechanism is still unclear (5, 8, 10).”

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

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Schlaepfer, T. E., Cohen, M. X., Frick, C., Kosel, M., Brodesser, D., Axmacher, N., Joe, A. Y., Kreft, M., Lenartz, D., & Sturm, V.
Affiliations
  • Johns Hopkins University (US)
  • University Hospital Bonn (DE)
  • University Hospital Cologne (DE)
Corresponding author
Schlaepfer, Thomas E
Venue
Neuropsychopharmacology
Published
2007-04-11
Volume
33
Issue
2
Pages
368-377
ISSN
  • 0893-133X (ISSN-L)
  • 1740-634X
OpenAlex
W2141467587
Cited by
1,027
References
61
Citations by year
2026: 18 · 2025: 19 · 2024: 36 · 2023: 42 · 2022: 36 · 2021: 54 · 2020: 81 · 2019: 52 · 2018: 54 · 2017: 45 · 2016: 51 · 2015: 73 · 2014: 75 · 2013: 66 · 2012: 78
FWCI
41.21
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Neuropsychopharmacology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Archive ouverte UNIGE (University of Geneva) (acceptedVersion)
  • Archive ouverte UNIGE (University of Geneva) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
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, nucleus accumbens, anhedonia, reward system dysfunction, brain metabolism, FDG-PET, fronto-striatal network, treatment-resistant depression
MeSH terms
Depressive Disorder, Double-Blind Method, Humans, Philosophy, Reward, Time Factors, Deep Brain Stimulation, Positron-Emission Tomography

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