St. Jude Medical Inc


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St. Jude Medical Inc. announced the first patient implants in a clinical study that is investigating whether deep brain stimulation (DBS) therapy will help people who suffer from major depressive disorder, a severe form of depression. The patients, a 59-year-old woman and a 42-year-old man, were implanted at Alexian Brothers Behavioral Health Hospital in Chicago, with the St. Jude Medical Libra(R) Deep Brain Stimulation System, an investigational device. The study, called BROADEN(TM) (BROdmann Area 25 DEep brain Neuromodulation), is a controlled, multi-site, blinded study that is evaluating the safety and effectiveness of DBS in patients with depression for whom currently available treatments are not effective. This study is researching a specific area in the brain called Brodmann Area 25 that is thought to be involved in depression. The first research of DBS for depression was conducted in Toronto, Canada, by neurologist Helen S. Mayberg, M.D., and neurosurgeon Andres Lozano