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大腦成像技術(shù)改善抑郁癥治療

From VOA Learning English, this is the Health Report.
這里是美國之音慢速英語健康報道。

Clinical depression is a serious medical condition. The word "clinical" is added to separate people who are depressed from those who simply feel sad because of life events. People with clinical depression can feel very sad, hopeless, and unimportant. Often they are unable to live in a normal way. Some people who suffer from depression kill themselves.
臨床抑郁癥是一種很嚴(yán)重的疾病。添加“臨床”這個單詞是用于區(qū)分那些僅僅因為生活瑣事感覺悲傷而抑郁的人。臨床抑郁患者會感覺悲傷、絕望和無足輕重，通常他們無法正常生活。一些抑郁癥患者還會自殺。

Clinical depression can be a difficult disease for medical professionals to diagnose, or identify. And it is difficult to treat -- what may work for one patient suffering from depression may not work for another.
臨床抑郁癥對于醫(yī)學(xué)專家來說是一種很難診斷或識別的疑難疾病，同時它還很難治療。一種治療辦法對這位抑郁癥患者有效，對另一位可能卻無效。

Some experts estimate that medicine used to treat depression is effective in treating 80 to 90 percent of patients. But other studies suggest medication is not much better at reducing levels of clinical depression than a placebo. A placebo is an inactive substance given to patients who do not know it is not medicine.
有專家估計，用于治療抑郁癥的藥物對80%到90%的患者有效。但其它研究表明，在緩解臨床抑郁癥程度上，藥物并未強(qiáng)于安慰劑。安慰劑是指給病人服用的無效物質(zhì)，而病人并不知道它不是藥物。

Helen Mayberg is a researcher at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. She says the first treatment for depression often fails.
海倫?梅貝格（Helen Mayberg）是美國喬治亞州亞特蘭大市埃默里大學(xué)的一位研究員，她說對抑郁癥的初次治療通常都會失敗。

"The problem is that whatever you get, the published numbers, even in randomized studies, is getting people well -- the remission rate is about 40 percent, which means, for most people, the first thing you are given is not likely to work."
她說，“問題在于不管如何，公開數(shù)字都是能讓人們的病情緩解，即使是在隨機(jī)研究中。病情緩解率大約是40%。而這意味著，對多數(shù)人來說，你最初給予服用的藥物可能沒有效果。”

That means doctors must try different methods of treatments until they find one that is effective.
而這意味著醫(yī)生必須嘗試各種不同的治療方法才能找出有效的那種。

But technology may change that. Ms. Mayberg leads a team of researchers at Emory University. They used brain imaging technology called P.E.T., or positron emission tomography to study treatment effects. The study involved 63 depressed patients.
但是科技可能會改變這一點。埃默里大學(xué)的梅貝格女士帶領(lǐng)了一組研究人員。他們利用被稱為正電子發(fā)射斷層掃描(簡稱PET)的腦成像技術(shù)來研究治療效果。這項研究涉及到了63位抑郁癥患者。

P.E.T. uses a radioactive sugar molecule that follows brain activity. This sugar molecule "lights up" areas of the brain that become affected by stimuli. Two kinds of stimuli were used in the study -- medication or talk therapy.
正電子發(fā)射斷層掃描使用放射性糖分子來跟蹤大腦的活動。這種糖分子會“點亮”受到外部刺激影響的區(qū)域。這項研究中使用了兩種刺激辦法--藥物療法和談話療法。

The researchers found that one area of the brain -- called the anterior insula -- seemed to predict which treatment would work.
研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)一個被稱為“前腦島”的大腦區(qū)域似乎可以評估哪種療法有效。

Patients with a slow-working anterior insula did best with cognitive talk therapy. Patients with a very busy anterior insula reacted well to medication -- a drug called Lexapro.
前腦島運行緩慢的患者采用認(rèn)知談話療法最為有效。前腦島非常忙碌的患者對一種名為依地普侖(Lexapro)的藥物治療反應(yīng)非常好。

Ms. Mayberg says the anterior insula is part of a system in the brain that watches over the inner state of the body. The anterior insula is activated during times of extreme pain or suffering.
梅貝格女士表示，前腦島是大腦監(jiān)管身體內(nèi)部狀態(tài)的系統(tǒng)的一部分。前腦島在遭受極度痛苦期間會被激活。

Ms. Mayberg says the insula may be a biological marker for depression. She says her team's findings could help doctors treat psychiatric disorders in the same way they treat other medical conditions.
梅貝格女士表示，腦島可能是抑郁癥的生物標(biāo)志物。她還表示，她的團(tuán)隊的研究成果可以幫助醫(yī)生用治療其它疾病的同種辦法來治療精神疾病。

"...where we do tests of various sorts to make management decisions all the time. Whereas in breast cancer, we do tumor markers in order to determine both that a treatment is likely to help you but also determine without a marker that certain treatments are not for you."
她說，“我們一直在做形形色色的試驗來進(jìn)行管理決策。然而在乳腺癌中，我們做腫瘤標(biāo)記不僅是為了確定療法對你是否有效，也是為了確定如果沒有這一標(biāo)記，某種療法就不適合你。”

And that's the Health Report from VOA Learning English.
以上就是本期美國之音慢速英語健康報道的全部內(nèi)容。

I'm Anna Matteo.
我是安娜?馬特奧（Anna Matteo）。

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