Depression is one of the most common mental health problems in the world. It affects how people feel, think, sleep, and make decisions.
Some people with depression also say they can’t focus or plan ahead, and they struggle with making everyday choices.
Now, a team of researchers from Stanford University and the VA Palo Alto Health Care System has taken a big step toward understanding why this happens—and how to treat it.
Their study, published in the journal Nature Mental Health, shows that a medication called guanfacine immediate release (GIR) might help a specific type of depression called the “cognitive biotype.”
This group of patients has trouble with attention, decision-making, and filtering out distractions.
Brain scans have shown that they often have problems in areas of the brain linked to cognitive control, especially the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex. These brain circuits help people stay focused and manage their thoughts and behavior.
Sadly, people with this cognitive biotype of depression usually don’t respond well to common antidepressants like SSRIs. So, the research team, led by Dr. Leanne Williams, wanted to try something different.
They gave GIR—a medication known to strengthen brain circuits— to people who had been identified with the cognitive biotype using brain scans. These participants took the medication for six to eight weeks. Before and after the treatment, researchers tested their thinking skills, took new brain scans, and asked questions about their daily symptoms.
The results were exciting. The medication helped restore brain activity in the areas linked to focus and self-control. People who took the medication showed stronger connections between important brain regions. On top of that, their thinking skills improved, and many of their depression symptoms got better.
In fact, 76.5% of the participants improved, and among those, over 84% achieved full remission from depression. That’s a much better result than what is usually seen with standard medications.
Dr. Williams explained that this kind of treatment moves us closer to “precision psychiatry”—where doctors use brain scans and other tools to choose the best treatment for each person based on how their brain works. Instead of guessing or trying different medications at random, doctors could match the right treatment to the right patient.
This approach could change the future of mental health care. Using tools like brain imaging, doctors may one day identify subtypes of depression and offer treatments designed specifically for those brain patterns. Williams and her team plan to keep studying this method in larger groups of people and at more locations to make sure it works for others too.
They also hope to use this strategy to help treat other types of depression and mental health conditions. Eventually, brain scans like the ones used in this study could become part of everyday care, helping doctors choose the best treatment right from the start.
In summary, this study shows that using brain scans to guide treatment decisions isn’t just a dream—it’s already starting to happen. For people with depression who haven’t found relief, this new approach could offer new hope.
If you care about mental health, please read studies about cannabis use disorder linked to increased risk of mental diseases and some mental health drugs can cause rapid weight gain.
For more health information, please read studies that one sleepless night can reverse depression for days and scientists find better treatment for older adults with depression.
The study is published in Nature Mental Health.
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