VOA慢速英語:大腦成像技術(shù)有助于治療抑郁癥（雙語）

Brain Imaging Improves Treatment for Depression

大腦成像技術(shù)有助于治療抑郁癥

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。“臨床”這個詞是用來把那些因為生活中的某些事情就感覺到郁悶沮喪的人，與那些只是簡單的感到難過的人區(qū)分開的。患有臨床抑郁癥的人會感覺非常悲傷，絕望，不重要。他們常常無法以正常的方式生活。一些患有抑郁癥的人還會自殺。

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.

臨床抑郁癥是一個醫(yī)學(xué)專家們很難診斷識別的疑難病。而且還很難治療，一個醫(yī)生為一個抑郁癥患者治療，可能就很難治療其他人。

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.

一些專家估計，藥物對于治療80-90%的抑郁癥患者有效，但是其他一些研究表明，在降低臨床抑郁癥的程度上，藥物并沒有安慰劑效果好。給病人的安慰劑是一種非活躍性物質(zhì)，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·梅伯格是美國喬治亞州的亞特蘭大埃默里大學(xué)的研究員，她稱，對抑郁癥的第一次治療經(jīng)常失敗。

“The problem is that whatever you get, the published numbers, even in randomized studies, is getting people well -- the remission rate is about 40percent, which means, for most people, the first thing you are given is not likely to work.”

“問題是，無論你得到什么，甚至在隨機研究中所公布的數(shù)字，都是可以讓人們變好——這緩解率大約是40%，這就意味著，對于大多數(shù)人來說，你所做的第一件事不太可能有效果。”

That means doctors must try different methods of treatments until they find one that is effective.

這就意味著醫(yī)生在找到一個有效的方法之前，必須嘗試不同的治療方法。

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 involved63 depressed patients.

但是科技可能會改變這一狀況，埃默里大學(xué)的梅伯格女士帶領(lǐng)一組研究人員進行研究。他們利用被稱為“P.E.T.”的腦成像技術(shù)(或者被稱為正電子發(fā)射斷層成像技術(shù))，來研究治療效果。他們研究了63名抑郁癥患者。

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.

P.E.T.技術(shù)利用放射性糖分子來跟隨大腦活動，糖分子可以“點燃”受到刺激影響的區(qū)域。有兩種刺激方法被用于該研究中——藥物治療和談話治療。

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)被稱為“前腦島”的一個大腦區(qū)域，似乎可以預(yù)測那個治療方法是可行的。

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.

如果病人的前腦島運行緩慢，那么用認(rèn)知談話治療最好;如果病人的前腦島非常忙綠，那么用依地普侖藥來進行藥物治療反應(yīng)良好。

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.

梅伯格女士稱，前腦島是一個大腦系統(tǒng)的一部分，監(jiān)管著身體的內(nèi)在狀態(tài)。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.

梅伯格女士稱，腦島可能是抑郁癥的一個生物學(xué)標(biāo)志。并稱，她的研究小組所研究的結(jié)果，可以幫助醫(yī)生治療精神疾病，同樣也可以用來治療其他疾病。

“…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.”

“我們一直做各種測試來做決策，但是對于乳腺癌來說，我們做腫瘤標(biāo)記不僅是為了確定一種治療方法有可能幫助到你，而且也為了如果沒有這一標(biāo)記的話，來確定某一治療方法不適合你。”

And that’s the Health Report from VOA Learning English.

I’m Anna Matteo.

這就是本期美國之音慢速英語健康報道的全部內(nèi)容，我是安娜·馬泰奧。