A recent clinical trial has shown that it's possible to safely and effectively treat depression at home using a brain stimulation device. That means patients can give themselves low-intensity impulses to see positive results – and potentially enjoy a higher quality of life.
The study was led by researchers at King's College, London, the University of East London, and The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. It was funded by Flow Neuroscience, a Swedish company that makes a $500 (€459) brain stimulation headset that's designed to be used at home over 30-minute sessions while you do other things.
The study aimed to prove the efficacy of a non-invasive technology called transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS). A weak current (under 2 mA) is delivered to the scalp via two electrodes. These electrical impluses are directed toward the front area of your brain that regulates your mood, motivation, and sleep.
People suffering from depression typically have lower activity in this portion of the brain. The idea behind tDCS is to gently stimulate that area, and reduce the symptoms of depression. Here's a visual overview of the tech from the folks at Flow.
Testing tDCS' effectiveness
Flow recommends using its device for treatment over a span of 10 weeks. That means five 30-minute sessions a week for the first three weeks, followed by three 30-minute sessions a week for the following seven weeks.
The researchers followed this course for the study with 174 participants who had been diagnosed with severe to moderate depression. They were divided into two groups: one group used the headset with current (called the active arm), and the other used it without current (called the inactive placebo control arm).
The results in the paper, published last week in Nature Medicine, are promising. The active tDCS treatment arm recorded a significantly greater clinical response of 58.3%, compared to the control group (37.8%). The active treatment arm was also associated with a significantly greater remission rate of 44.9%, compared to only 21.8% in the control group.
That gives Flow's headset and prescribed course of treatment more credibility. And it could potentially benefit many of the 280 million people who suffer from depression worldwide by providing an accessible alternative to the existing options of medication and therapy.
"While a combination of antidepressants and therapy generally proves to be effective for many people, medication can have side-effects that some can find disruptive,” said Cynthia Fu, the study’s senior author and a professor at King’s College London. "Our study has demonstrated that tDCS is a potential first-line option that could help those in need."
The Flow headset itself has been on the market for a while now, and is even available to patients in the UK via the NHS. Studies have also shown the device to be safe for use for up to 12 months, which is important because users may experience a relapse of depression past the initial treatment period.
Flow's headset is one of several brain stimulation devices that can be used to treat mental health conditions. We recently wrote about the Diadem from researchers at the University of Utah, which uses neuromodulation to treat pain and depression in a single 40-minute sitting. There's also a new headband from Australian firm Neurode that's designed to treat ADHD with 20 minutes of use a day.
Source: The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston