Brain Data Could Read Moods, Potentially Treat Depression

Can mood be decoded from brain data?

The work is part of a larger movement aimed at developing better, more personalized therapies for psychiatric conditions like depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder using deep brain stimulation, a procedure that requires surgery and is highly invasive. The approach is similar to treatments already in use for movement disorders like Parkinson's disease and epilepsy.

While DBS is meant for patients with severe mental health issues for whom other lines of treatment haven't worked, what clinicians learn from its use could also improve our overall understanding of disease and, in the future, health care for people with less severe disease, scientists said.