5 Sci-Fi Medical Procedures We’ll Have in Our Lifetime | Cracked.com

As I know a number of people who suffer from various types of depression, this one sounds especially promising. Although I have to wonder what other tricks they can use this technique for, hopefully not #5…

#3. The Anti-Depression Magnet

The Problem:

Depression and the various ailments that spring from it are the scourge of modern society. Sure, most of us get the blues every now and again, but when things really go off the rails, that shit goes clinical. Clinical depression is a dead serious thing that goes way beyond listening to shitty country ballads and sulking, deeply affecting the life of the person and likely everyone they’re close to.

And here’s the problem: Depression is a bitch to treat. Even in fictional universes where they have beams that instantly heal wounds, they’d never depict some kind of invisible depression-curing ray that they could just shoot at your brain.

 

 

Depression: Cured.

The Sci-Fi Solution:

Well, here it is:

 

 

Nothing treats depression like a dentist’s chair attached to a bewildering array of soulless machines.

The secret is magnets, and we’re not talking about the pseudoscience bullshit magnetic bracelets that are intended to cure your arthritis. This is no placebo, this is transcranial magnetic stimulation, where a patient’s head is exposed to a powerful electromagnet that stimulates the mood-controlling areas of the brain. The principle isn’t that much different from electroshock therapy, only without the electrodes and without so many patients running away screaming at the mention of it.

And experiments show it apparently works. Once they figured out a way to perform tests in a reliable way (which was, for some reason, bombarding everyone’s brain with electric shocks to mask the magnet), the magnet proved its effectiveness and is currently getting tweaked for widespread use. And it’ll be available pretty damn soon, considering the fact that magnetic therapy devices have already been approved by the FDA.

via 5 Sci-Fi Medical Procedures We’ll Have in Our Lifetime | Cracked.com.

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