Treatment for Depression with Chronic Neck Pain Completely Cured in 94.2% of Patients Following Neck Muscle Treatment

We report three patients with cervical neuromuscular syndrome (CNMS) who followed similar courses. Autonomic imbalance may occur following neck muscle pain, and a wide variety of somatic symptoms including headache and vertigo appear and a generalized poor condition may continue for long periods. If many such somatic symptoms persist for months to years, symptoms of depression are exacerbated. The patients end up in psychiatric clinics, where they are diagnosed with depression, but they do not respond to antidepressants. Thus, they continue to suffer for many years. These patients eventually were completely cured with the resolution of neck pain by neck muscle treatment, using two types of special low-frequency therapy equipment, far-infrared radiation and acupuncture. When treatment for the neck muscles is initiated, symptoms of depression are quickly relieved, and diverse somatic symptoms disappear one after another as neck muscle tension is gradually alleviated (the number of abnormal neck muscle checkpoints decreases). Such a course suggests that neck muscle tension and chronic pain are closely related to depression. Neck muscle-related depression due to CNMS clearly differs from psychiatric conditions such as major and bipolar depression. In patients with neck muscle-related depression, symptoms of depression are not accompanied by ungrounded anxiety, a sense of emptiness, apathy, or self-rejection. Neck muscle abnormalities leading to CNMS are caused by head injury, whiplash injury, and a prolonged forward-bent-posture due to using a personal computer, playing computer games, texting, and engaging in machine-paced work such as assembly-line operation.

Neck neuromuscular treatment for depressive disorders with cervical muscular tension or chronic neck pain—A pilot study

BACKGROUND: An intimate relationship between depressive disorders and chronic pain is well known but often neglected. We studied patients with depressive disorders accompanying cervical muscular tension or neck pain. They also complaints of various physical, psychosomatic, and psychiatric signs such as anxiety and non-specific complaints related to autonomic imbalance. These complaints or symptoms are commonly resistant to pharmacological treatment, and thus we tried to treat these conditions by reducing their cervical muscular tension or pain. METHODS: We evaluated 30 complaints of 138 patients suffering from depressive disorders with cervical muscular abnormality (52 men and 86 women). The presence of the 30 complaints was evaluated as ‘positive’ or ‘negative’ before and during treatment. The necks of all patients were treated using low-frequency stimulation, micro-wave therapies, electric needle application, and acupuncture. RESULTS: Reducing cervical muscular tension remitted or cured the 30 complaints including depressive mood. The reduction of cervical muscle pain or tension initially ameliorated the depressive symptoms and anxiety, and subsequently improved their autonomic imbalances. Discriminant analysis of the first and second examinations correctly classified 95.3% of original grouped cases. CONCLUSION: Reducing cervical muscular tension is an effective treatment for patients suffering from depressive disorders with cervical neuromuscular pain or rigidity.

Females with schizophrenia have abnormal functional cortical connectivity in the gamma frequency during an auditory oddball task using magnetoencephalography

We studied differences in imaginary coherence (IC) of the gamma band between brain regions of female schizophrenia patients during the auditory oddball task using magnetoencephalography (MEG). Subjects were 12 right-handed female schizophrenia patients, who were evaluated by the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scales (PANSS). Functional connectivity during an auditory oddball task was reconstructed in low gamma (30 - 50 Hz) and high gamma (50 - 100 Hz and 100 - 150 Hz) bands, and represented by IC using seeds determined by the significant oscillatory power changes obtained by event-related synchronization (ERS) and event-related desynchronization (ERD) power measurements. Gamma ERS (30 - 50 Hz) power was decreased in the left precuneus at 500 - 750 ms and in the right precuneus at 750 - 1000 ms. IC in the gamma band (50 - 100 Hz) was decreased between the right precuneus (seed) and right paracentral lobule (target) and between the right precuneus and right hypothalamus at 0 - 250 ms. IC in the gamma band (100 - 150 Hz) was increased between the left precuneus and right cuneus (Brodmann area 7) at 250 - 500 ms, between the left precuneus and right culmen at 500 - 750 ms, and between the left precuneus and right cuneus (Brodmann area 17), between the left precuneus and right posterior cingulate cortex, and between the left precuneus and right caudate nucleus at 750 - 1000 ms. In the high gamma band (50 - 100 Hz) at 0 - 250 ms, significant positive correlations were shown between IC and conceptual disorganization in PANSS scores, between IC and unusual thought content score, and between IC and positive scale score. IC within the high gamma band in female schizophrenia patients showed two types of functional disconnection, intrahemispheric and interhemispheric. IC between the right or left precuneus and other specific cortical areas showed dysfunction, suggesting that the parietal lobe plays an important role in dysfunction in connectivity in the gamma band during the oddball task.