Electroconvulsive treatments stimulate growth of new neurons in the brain

One reason that SSRIs like Prozac help reduce depression is that they trigger the growth of new brain cells. Studies in rodents had already shown that electroconvulsive therapy (“shock therapy”) also stimulates the growth of new neurons in the brain, which may explain its efficacy in re-booting the brain out of depression. Now research in primates has demonstrated the same effect, as reported in The Journal of Neuroscience. The neurogenesis was not a response to brain damage; “no evidence of increased cell death was found in the ECS treated animals. In fact, the researchers found that the ECS treatments increased production of a protein (BCL2) that protects neurons from damage.”

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