College is a stressful time for everyone; for some people it could be too much to handle. At the age of 19, Edi Guyton attempted to commit suicide because she was unable to deal with the social and academic pressures of college. Guyton had never been a happy girl while growing up. For the next 40 years of Guyton's life, she lived depressed. It was after that period of time that Guyton volunteered for a new experimental treatement where a neurosurgeon would implant a pair of battery-powered electrodes deep inside her brain. This treatment, deep brain stimulus or DBS, targets the area of the brain that controls the moods of a person, also known as Area 25. It was seen in a study that Area 25 is overactive in depressed patients. It was thought that the electrodes would stimulate Area 25 and get it out of 'overdrive.' After undergoing this procedure, Guyton's depression had quickly decreased. To measure the placebo effect of this experiment, the doctor's turned off the battery pack in some patients and left on others. Those with the battery packs off quickly regained their state of depression while the others remained happy.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/14/health/battery-powered-brain/index.html?hpt=he_c1
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