Looking Out for the People
May 21st, 2005 at 9:41 pm by Susie
Isn’t this great? It doesn’t even work, and they’ll approve it anyway:
The Food and Drug Administration may soon approve a medical device that would be the first new treatment option for severely depressed patients in a generation, despite the misgivings of many experts who say there is little evidence that it works.The pacemaker-like device, called a vagus nerve stimulator, is surgically implanted in the upper chest, and its wires are threaded into the neck, where it stimulates a nerve leading to the brain. It has been approved since 1997 for the treatment of some epilepsy patients, and the drug agency has told the manufacturer that it is now “approvable” for severe depression that is resistant to other treatment.
But in the only rigorously controlled trial so far in depressed patients, the stimulator was no more effective than surgery in which it was implanted but not turned on.
how does it feel to be
one of the wonderful
people
OT sorry
Isn’t the vagus nerve the one that gives hiccups when it gets irriated? Now, talk about something that’ll depress ya …