A surgical procedure used to treat the acute symptoms of Parkinson's Disease may be a major step toward successfully treating clinical depression. Scientists are claiming that they have developed a "brain pacemaker" that will virtually cure depression through electronic stimulus.

The neuroscience journal, Neuron will this week publish the results of studies conducted by a team of scientists in Toronto who studied a half dozen patient volunteers who were suffering from untreatable and long-standing clinical depression.

Under a local anaesthetic, each patient had 2 small holes drilled into their skulls and by way of MRIs, doctors were able to insert two electrode wires into the brain area. The other end of these two wires were threaded just below the scalp to an area at the lower neck.

The next step involved a procedure under general anaesthetic whereby doctors inserted a small pacemaker-like apparatus known as a pulse generator implant. This implant was placed under the skin in the patients chest. The wires from the lower neck area were connected to this "pacemaker" causing the patient to receive constant brain stimulation.

The results have been described by some as a "miracle". Only two of the volunteers, both men reported no significant changes after the implant but doctors say that the procedure will require further "fine-tuning".

One of the female volunteers who was previously so effected by severe depression that she was unable to conduct normal activities of daily living, opened an antique business; another woman who was struggling daily just to cope became a community activist in her local PTA.