Nolan Williams, who stimulated the brain to treat depression, dies aged 43

Nolan Williams, an innovative neuroscientist who developed a noninvasive brain stimulation technique that gave unusually rapid relief to people with treatment-resistant depression, died Oct. 8 at his home in Northern California. He was 43.

His wife, Kristin Raj, said he died by suicide. According to two of his colleagues, Dr. Williams himself struggles with depression.

Dr. Williams was hired by the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine in 2014. He soon founded the Brain Stimulation Lab, where he focused on finding rapid-acting approaches to treating dysfunction underlying psychiatric disorders such as depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

In addition to stimulating the brain to cope with depression, he led studies on special operations veterans who had symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury – including anger, depression, anxiety and insomnia – and who had been treated in Mexico with the psychedelic drug ibogaine, which is illegal in the United States.

The nonprofit organization Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions (VETS), which works with Dr. Williams, who worked on the ibogaine study, said in a statement after his death: “His research demonstrated what these veterans courageously believed: that healing was possible, that their suffering mattered, and that science could meet them in their darkest hour.”

Dr. Williams’ fascination with brain circuitry grew while he was a student at the Medical University of South Carolina, where he learned how to stimulate the brain to relieve depression that could not be relieved by therapy and prescription medications.

He then developed a fast-acting, high-tech therapy called SAINT for Stanford Accelerated Intelligent Neuromodulation Therapy, which targets the area in the brain where depression arises.

In clinical trials of about 400 people — from Stanford and Magnus Medical, a company that licensed its technology — about 80 percent experienced remission of their depression.

“We’re finding a place where we can re-stimulate the brain not to be suicidal and not to be depressed,” said Dr. Williams in an interview on “CBS Sunday Morning” this year.

According to the World Health Organization, depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide. Treatment is delivered in a variety of ways using talk therapy, pharmaceutical medications, and noninvasive therapies that apply electrical currents or magnetic fields to the brain, such as electroconvulsive therapy and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS).

SAINT uses a magnetic resonance imaging scanner to locate the region in the prefrontal cortex of the brain responsible for depression.

A device called a stimulator with an electromagnetic coil inside is then placed on the scalp. When electric current flows through it, the coil creates a magnetic field that stimulates neurons with rapid, intermittent pulses at the target site.

Brandon Bentzley, a psychiatrist and former innovation director at the Brain Stimulation Lab, continued Dr. Williams’ concept into a technological reality. With Dr. Williams as a partner, he helped found Magnus, which has sold the stimulator and services to 15 clinics across the country to date.

“We saw people who had suffered from debilitating depression for decades and suddenly were no longer depressed,” said Dr. Bentzley in an interview, adding that remission sometimes depends on whether a patient receives therapeutic support.

“You could relapse within months,” he said. “But we can treat her again.”

Stimulation is delivered over five days in 10 daily sessions, each lasting 10 minutes – a regimen of more stimulation in less time than other treatments of this type.

In SAINT’s first large study, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry in 2021, 14 of 29 people received the treatment. Eleven of the 14, or 78.6 percent, experienced remission within four weeks, the study found; some only took five days. On average, people started feeling better within 2.6 days.

“The effects of SAINT appear to be very promising for people with treatment-resistant depression, but more work is needed to verify them,” said Mouhsin Shafi, associate professor of neurology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and director of the Berenson-Allen Center for Noninvasive Brain Stimulation, both in Boston. “We need to understand more about how lasting the impacts are and how we can extend them over time.”

The Food and Drug Administration cleared SAINT for psychiatric treatment in 2022; Medicare covers hospital costs; and some insurance companies cover costs at private clinics. The cost of a week-long treatment can range from $18,000 to $36,000.

Side effects include headache and short-term pain at the stimulation site during treatment.

Nolan Ryan Williams – his father, a baseball fan, named him after Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan – was born on June 25, 1982, in Bamberg, S.C., and grew up in Charleston. His father, Bryan, was a fisherman and carpenter. His mother, Ann (Hewitt) Williams, ran a daycare center and later worked as a caterer.

Nolan, who earned a black belt in taekwondo at 18 and was an experienced kite surfer, earned a bachelor’s degree in molecular biology from the College of Charleston in 2003.

After graduating from medical school at the Medical University of South Carolina in 2008, he remained there for residencies in neurology and psychiatry and fellowships in clinical neuromodulation and human neuroscience with Mark George, a neurologist and psychiatrist who directs the university’s brain stimulation laboratory.

“Nolan started working in the lab as an undergraduate and was extremely curious,” said Dr. George, a pioneer of TMS treatment for depression. “And when he was in medical school, he would come after class or on weekends and in the summer to do research. He would always ask, ‘Why?’ Ask questions and figure out the next step, two or three.”

Dr. George remembered that Dr. Williams had told him during his residency that he wanted to combine three ambitious steps – each of which had been studied – to create what became HOLY.

“I said, ‘Nolan, haven’t I taught you anything? In science you do one thing at a time,’ but he said, ‘I want to move us forward,'” recalls Dr. George.

The first step by Dr. Williams’ goal was to significantly accelerate the speed of the magnetic pulses and shorten the duration of treatment. The second method used magnetic resonance imaging to precisely target the point in the brain to be stimulated. And the third option was to have brain atrophy measured using MRI and adjust the intensity of brain stimulation accordingly.

“What he did was transformative,” said Dr. George.

Dr. Williams’ interest in the brain’s response to ibogaine led to a collaboration with VETS, which helps veterans access psychedelics to treat traumatic brain injuries. One of its founders, Marcus Capone, a retired member of the Navy SEALs, first took ibogaine in 2017 and experienced a remarkable recovery.

His wife, Amber Capone, who founded VETS with her husband, recalled the relief she felt when she met Dr. Williams in 2018 after being rejected by doctors, researchers and military leaders when she sought her help in validating the effects of ibogaine on veterans.

“I tried desperately to get everyone I could to listen to me,” she said in an interview. “Nolan was the first person who listened to me and took me seriously.”

Dr. Williams designed a study that tested and evaluated 30 special operations veterans before and after their treatment at an ibogaine clinic in Mexico from 2021 to 2022. Ibogaine is an alkaloid extracted from the bark of the African iboga bush.

The first of two studies, published in the journal Nature Medicine in 2024, showed that one month after treatment, 83 percent of veterans had achieved remission of their post-traumatic stress disorder, 73 percent had achieved remission of their depression, and 86 percent had achieved remission of their anxiety.

“These are the most dramatic drug effects I have ever seen in an observational study,” said Dr. Williams of the New York Times in 2024. However, he added: “Without the FDA’s green light to conduct trials, you simply cannot do the kind of randomized trials that are the gold standard for clinical trials.”

In addition to his wife, a clinical professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University who treated patients with SAINT, Dr. Williams nor his mother; a daughter, Autumn; a son, Hendrix; and a brother, Kyle.

Dr. George said he was aware of Dr.’s depression. Williams was aware and encouraged him to get help, but was unsure whether Dr. Williams will be treated with SAINT.

He added: “I wonder if somewhere inside he still harbored a stigma towards depression. But these brain stimulation treatments combat the stigma.”

If you are having suicidal thoughts, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources.