Depression Treatment Marketing Evolves With Neurotech

Can a 'brain pacemaker' really treat depression? The science says it's complicated

The race is on to develop and commercialize neural implant technologies that promise to treat depression.

Some of these devices are directly attached to the brain, while some are nestled atop the dura with the goal of stimulating neural networks to provide relief to suffering. As the neurotech sector grows, some companies are attracting tens of millions of dollars in startup funding and deploying slick marketing to make questionable claims about how they can treat mental illness.

Depression is a significant burden to individuals and society, with impacts on family, wellbeing, and work. Bringing relief to people who suffer from it has been a key challenge of mental health treatment for generations. In the past century, the introduction of powerful antidepressants, such as SSRIs, transformed the treatment of the disorder.

But in their efforts to market these…