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The Conversation
The Conversation
Daniel Merino, Assistant Science Editor & Co-Host of The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The Conversation

Treating mental illness with electricity marries old ideas with modern tech and understanding of the brain – podcast

In deep brain stimulation, electrodes – the pale white lines – are implanted into a patient's brain and connected to a battery in a person's chest. Jmarchn/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

Mental illnesses such as obsessive compulsive disorder, depression and addiction are notoriously hard to treat and often don’t respond to drugs. But a new wave of treatments that stimulate the brain with electricity are showing promise on patients and in clinical trials. In this episode of The Conversation Weekly podcast, we talk to three experts and one patient about the history of treating mental illness, how new technology and deeper understanding of the brain are leading to better treatments and where the neuroscience of mental illness is headed next.

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