Discovery Health Channel to Feature Medical Breakthrough Treatment for Depression, Vagus Nerve Stimulation, June 26, 9 p.m. EDT
The “Medical Incredible” series will feature Charles E. Donovan III, a former sufferer of chronic depression and patient in the study of vagus nerve stimulation therapy for chronic depression. Donovan is author of “Out of the Black Hole: The Patient’s Guide to Vagus Nerve Stimulation and Depression” and founder of www.VagusNerveStimulation.com.
St. Louis, MO (PRWEB) June 20, 2006 -- The Discovery Health Channel’s “Medical Incredible” series will air a segment about a new FDA-approved treatment for chronic depression on June 26th at 9 p.m. EDT. The segment will feature Charles E. Donovan III, a former sufferer of chronic depression and patient in the study of vagus nerve stimulation therapy for chronic depression.
Donovan, author of “Out of the Black Hole: The Patient’s Guide to Vagus Nerve Stimulation and Depression” (copyright 2006, $29.95 cloth, www.OutoftheBlackHole.com), credits this remarkable treatment to completely changing his life after suffering from depression for over 20 years. The Discovery Health Channel segment will also include an interview with Charles Conway, M.D., Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at St. Louis University Hospital and lead study investigator for the clinical trial. Dr. Conway will explain this 90-minute outpatient procedure and how vagus nerve stimulation favorably modulates those key areas of the brain responsible for mood and depression in a more robust way than traditional antidepressants.
The clinical trial Donovan became a part of was to determine if vagus nerve stimulation would help those suffering from treatment-resistant depression (TRD). He was one of 200 patients from 20 different hospitals throughout the United States who participated in this trial. The average patient in the study had suffered lifetime depression for 25 years. Unlike most standard clinical trials, for a patient to be considered as a study subject for this trial, they had to have failed to adequately respond to all legally available antidepressants. The patients (including Donovan) who were enrolled for this trial had the severest cases of TRD and were deemed the most difficult to treat.
On April 4, 2001, Donovan had the vagus nerve stimulator implanted in his upper left chest. Over the course of several months, with preset stimulation to his left vagus nerve, Donovan went from seeing no hope of anything good happening to him in the future to being only occasionally pessimistic about his future, believing that for the most part things would get better. Gradually he began to have an optimistic view of his future, and now he says his life is normal, full of joy and genuine happiness.
Donovan, one of the estimated four million people in the United States today suffering from TRD, hopes his story and the information he includes in his “Patient’s Guide” will help those suffering to find their way out of the “black hole.”
Donovan is the founder of VagusNerveStimulation.com , as well as editor of the VagusNerveStimulation.com bulletin. He was a presenter at the FDA Medical Devices Panel meeting in Washington, D.C., which recommended approval of this treatment. Vagus nerve stimulation therapy was the subject of eight major symposiums at the American Psychiatric Association’s 2006 Annual Meeting in May.
For more information about vagus nerve stimulation, help for chronic depression and Donovan’s book, visit www.OutoftheBlackHole.com or call 1-888-VAGUS-88.
Media Contact:
Charles Donovan
314-863-0896
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