Elizabeth Maynard Schaeffer, depression sufferer CBS News Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Kaledin on new hope for the chronically depressed. Despite the revolution in anti-depressant drugs, as many as 3 million Americans find these drugs don't work for them. And nothing else does, either. But now, CBS News Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Kaledin reports, there may be another option. It's a tiny little device called the vagal nerve stimulator.
Doctors believe the left vagus nerve controls mood centers in the brain.
When the device is installed, wires wrap around the nerve and deliver an electrical pulse, programmed by a computer. Psychiatrists like Barry believe the device has great potential. And so does Tucker Davis. There was no future to my life. But today Davis sees many reasons, thanks to the vagal nerve stimulator.