Table 1.

Clinical and demographic characteristics of patients undergoing subcallosal cingulate deep brain stimulation for treatment-resistant depression

Characteristic	Patient 1	Patient 2	Patient 3	Patient 4
Age, yr	49	56	46	50
Sex	Female	Female	Male	Female
Marital status	Married	Divorced	Single	Married
Family history of depression	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Age at onset of MDD, yr	23	20	13	13
Current episode duration, mo	32	120	72	84
Lifetime no. of depressive episodes	2	5	6	1
Prior psychiatric hospital admission	1	3	2	2
Prior suicide attempt	No	No	No	No
Secondary Axis I diagnosis	Agoraphobia with panic disorder	Chronic fatigue syndrome	Hypochondriasis	Anorexia nervosa as a teenager
Prior psychotherapy	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Previous medications	Fluoxetine, citalopram, bupropion, lamotrigine, venlafaxine, plus augmentation with lithium, quetiapine	Phenelzine, doxepin, fluoxetine, fluoxamine, sertraline, paroxetine, moclobemide, venlafaxine, amitriptyline, plus augmentation with lithium, trazodone, buspirone, tryptophan	Amitriptyline, desipramine, imipramine, nortriptyline, phenelzine, fluoxetine tranylcypromine, fluoxamine, paroxetine, sertraline, venlafaxine, bupropion, moclobemide, lamotrigine, with thyroxine augmentation, St. John’s wort	Bupropion, fluoxetine, phenelzine, moclobemide dualoxetine, escitalopram, mirtazepine, methylphenidate, plus augmentation with lithium, atypical antipsychotics, dexamphetamine
Medications (dosage) during SCC-DBS	Citalopram (60 mg/d), clonazepam (0.5 mg qhs), lithium carbonate (600 mg/qhs), quetiapine (150 mg/qhs), multivitamins	Dualoxetine (60 mg/d), zopiclone (22.5 mg/qhs), gabapentin (1200 mg/d), clonazepam (1.5 mg/d), synthyroid (0.15 mg/d)	No antidepressants, vitamin D 4000 IU + calcium, sporadic testosterone im	Dextroamphetamine (10 mg/d), risperidone (0.75 mg/qhs), mirtazepine (11.25 mg/qhs), aripiprazole (6 mg/qhs)
Prior ECT	Transient positive response	No response	No response with severe memory deficits	Positive response with severe memory deficits
Prior rTMS	No prior treatment	No prior treatment	No response	Responded but relapsed
Stages of treatment resistance*	Stage IV	Stage IV	Stage IV	Stage IV

ECT = electroconvulsive therapy; im = intramuscular; MDD = major depressive disorder; qhs = every evening or bedtime; rTMS = repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation; SCC-DBS = deep brain stimulation of the subcallosal cingulate.

^*As per Thase and Rush.¹²