Scientists and researchers are constantly trying to improve the lives of people dealing with physical or mental illnesses. They work hard to develop tools and technologies, bringing hope to people who are impacted by these conditions. Here are a few interesting innovations that may help improve the lives of people living with mental illnesses.

Vagus nerve stimulation to treat depression

Researchers have obtained promising results from a study looking at an alternative way to treat depression. A recent clinical trial consisted of 493 adults who had not responded to more conventional treatments for depression. Some of the participants had been suffering from depression for more than half their lives. For this study, they were given a device that would stimulate the vagus nerve, which is a main nerve in the parasympathetic nervous system. Assessments were done for about 10 months.

People who received the vagus nerve stimulation showed improvement in their quality of life and in their depressive symptoms compared to those in the control group. The results, which were published in the Brain Stimulation academic journal, were statistically significant. While promising, it is a form of treatment that needs further research and development. The clinical trial is continuing by investigating whether vagus nerve stimulation can help those with bipolar disorder too.

Diagnosing mental illnesses through the retina

The Quebec-based company diaMentis is working on developing a tool that can help clinicians diagnose schizophrenia and bipolar by using retinal signal analysis. The company explains on their website that the “retina is formed from the same cells as the brain and is therefore an integral part of the central nervous system.” The tool they are developing would help diagnose mental health disorders by looking at biosignatures in a person’s retina. The results of their current research were published in the international academic journal Biomedical Signal Processing and Control, and highlighted the efficacy of diaMentis’s developed models.

If diaMentis can fully develop their tool and prove that it is accurate, it can be a game changer in the medical field for diagnosing mental health conditions. A tool like this could help doctors make a more accurate diagnosis in the early stages of these illnesses, leading to improved outcomes for people coping with mental illnesses.

Groundbreaking treatment for anxiety disorders: Focused ultrasound

There are many types of treatment available for those with anxiety disorders, like talk therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Dialectical Behavioural Therapy, and medications. However, some individuals with anxiety disorders still struggle despite trying different treatments. All of that may change with a new treatment researched at Sunnybrook Health Sciences that shows promising results: focused ultrasound.

Approved in Canada for treating essential tremors, focused ultrasound has now been used in a trial for people with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. There seems to be a link between two small parts of the brain that affect the regulation of anxiety and mood. In the past, doctors would destroy those regions with invasive procedures like burning or cutting, with risks like stroke, bleeding, infections, and death. In the present day, the ultrasound can create a lesion in those same regions without the risks associated with the old procedures.

Doctors can now look at this region of the patient’s brain with an MRI scan, which helps guide them to place the ultrasound beam at the correct area to administer the treatment. Nir Lipsman, MD, PhD, at Sunnybrook, explains that the patient wears a helmet-like device that has 1,000 transducers that help direct the ultrasound to the specific region of the brain. Heat is generated from the intersecting beams and it is that heat which causes the lesions. It is a two-hour procedure and people who receive the treatment leave the hospital the same day. Currently, a team at Sunnybrook Health Sciences is studying the benefits of this treatment through their research.

Rima Youssef, who lives with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, was interviewed by CTV in 2024 to talk about her experiences with OCD and how the ultrasound therapy has changed her life. Living with severe OCD for years that was affecting her day-to-day life, she “didn’t feel safe in [her] own brain” and couldn’t go to work or school. She confided that the treatment changed her life. Two years after the focused ultrasound, she says most of her obsessive thoughts are almost gone, adding she feels like she has her life back.

–Gabrielle Lesage

From Share&Care Summer 2025
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