Surgical Anesthestic May Treat Drug-Resistant Depression, Serve as an Alternative to Electroconvulsive Therapy

While electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is considered an effective treatments of medication-resistant depression, millions of potential patients fear the technique’s side effects and its public stigma. Researchers at the University of Utah have found that the surgical anesthetic isoflurane may serve as a side effect-free alternative to ECT. “We need to expand our research into a larger, multicenter trial, but if the results of our pilot study pan out, it would change the face of treating depression,” one researcher said. Click here to read the full story.