四级拓展：VOA慢速
Spiiker VOA Special English, 纯正的美音，带你学习最前端的英语。 大脑成像技术改善抑郁症治疗 From VOA Learning English, this is the Health Report. 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. 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. 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. Helen Mayberg is a researcher at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. She says the first treatment for depression often fails. "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." That means doctors must try different methods of treatments until they find one that is effective. 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. 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. The researchers found that one area of the brain -- called the anterior insula -- seemed to predict which treatment would work. 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. 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. 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. "...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." And that's the Health Report from VOA Learning English. I'm Anna Matteo. See more information, you can visit us 英语口语测试 http://www.spiiker.com/daily/ 在线学英语口语 http://www.spiiker.com/english-plaza.jsp
这里是美国之音慢速英语健康报道。
临床抑郁症是一种很严重的疾病。添加“临床”这个单词是用于区分那些仅仅因为生活琐事感觉悲伤而抑郁的人。临床抑郁患者会感觉悲伤、绝望和无足轻重，通常他们无法正常生活。一些抑郁症患者还会自杀。
临床抑郁症对于医学专家来说是一种很难诊断或识别的疑难疾病，同时它还很难治疗。一种治疗办法对这位抑郁症患者有效，对另一位可能却无效。
有专家估计，用于治疗抑郁症的药物对80%到90%的患者有效。但其它研究表明，在缓解临床抑郁症程度上，药物并未强于安慰剂。安慰剂是指给病人服用的无效物质，而病人并不知道它不是药物。
海伦•梅贝格（Helen Mayberg）是美国乔治亚州亚特兰大市埃默里大学的一位研究员，她说对抑郁症的初次治疗通常都会失败。
她说，“问题在于不管如何，公开数字都是能让人们的病情缓解，即使是在随机研究中。病情缓解率大约是40%。而这意味着，对多数人来说，你最初给予服用的药物可能没有效果。”
而这意味着医生必须尝试各种不同的治疗方法才能找出有效的那种。
但是科技可能会改变这一点。埃默里大学的梅贝格女士带领了一组研究人员。他们利用被称为正电子发射断层扫描(简称PET)的脑成像技术来研究治疗效果。这项研究涉及到了63位抑郁症患者。
正电子发射断层扫描使用放射性糖分子来跟踪大脑的活动。这种糖分子会“点亮”受到外部刺激影响的区域。这项研究中使用了两种刺激办法--药物疗法和谈话疗法。
研究人员发现一个被称为“前脑岛”的大脑区域似乎可以评估哪种疗法有效。
前脑岛运行缓慢的患者采用认知谈话疗法最为有效。前脑岛非常忙碌的患者对一种名为依地普仑(Lexapro)的药物治疗反应非常好。
梅贝格女士表示，前脑岛是大脑监管身体内部状态的系统的一部分。前脑岛在遭受极度痛苦期间会被激活。
梅贝格女士表示，脑岛可能是抑郁症的生物标志物。她还表示，她的团队的研究成果可以帮助医生用治疗其它疾病的同种办法来治疗精神疾病。
她说，“我们一直在做形形色色的试验来进行管理决策。然而在乳腺癌中，我们做肿瘤标记不仅是为了确定疗法对你是否有效，也是为了确定如果没有这一标记，某种疗法就不适合你。”
以上就是本期美国之音慢速英语健康报道的全部内容。
我是安娜•马特奥（Anna Matteo）。
