Stanford's 5-Day Treatment Helps Half Beat Depression

Valerie Zeko spent 28 years battling depression that no medication could touch, but five days of a new brain treatment changed everything.

At 57, Zeko had tried eight different antidepressants over the years. Some made her suicidal, others left her emotionally numb or riddled with side effects. Nothing gave her back the joy she'd lost since age 27, when she first spent a summer on the couch, unable to enjoy the beach near her home or spend time with friends.

Then in November 2023, Zeko joined a clinical trial at Stanford University testing SAINT, a treatment that sends magnetic pulses to a targeted region of the brain's prefrontal cortex. This area controls emotional processing, and scientists believe its dysfunction plays a key role in depression.

Within a week, Zeko's ability to enjoy life returned. At Thanksgiving, she rode an e-bike across the Golden Gate Bridge with her family, an activity she'd done before but never enjoyed. This time was completely different.

Nearly one-third of the 332 million people worldwide with depression don't respond to conventional treatments. Doctors call this treatment-resistant depression, and for these patients, each failed therapy can deepen their hopelessness.

The new study, published in World Psychiatry, showed that half of 24 patients receiving SAINT achieved remission within a month. Only 21% of those receiving placebo treatment saw the same results.

Dr. Ian Kratter, the study's lead author and a clinical assistant professor at Stanford, says the findings offer powerful hope. The treatment works even for people who've tried multiple therapies without success, a group typically least likely to respond to new treatments.

Why This Inspires

SAINT represents a breakthrough in how doctors approach mental health treatment. Unlike most antidepressants, which were accidentally discovered while treating other diseases, SAINT was engineered specifically to target how the brain works.

Dr. Brandon Bentzley, who helped develop the therapy, says this brings mental health care into the age of precision medicine. Doctors can now understand individual brains and apply treatments with the same accuracy a cardiologist uses on the heart.

For Zeko, the change was life-altering. She now wants to redo every activity she'd previously endured without joy, because everything feels better now.

The treatment isn't widely available yet, but the trial results suggest a future where treatment-resistant depression has an answer that works quickly and effectively, offering genuine hope to millions who've been waiting for something, anything, to help.