Is a brain-stimulation headset the answer to depression?

Flow Neuroscience is an innovative brain-stimulation treatment’ that patients can use in their own homes.

It delivers electrical pulses to an area in the front of the brain called the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.

The area is linked to decision making, motivation, planning and working memory functions that become impaired in depression.

Flow Neuroscience has attracted the attention of growing number of NHS Trusts .

Other independent clinical trials of tDCS for depression have found negligible benefit.

Dundee Advanced Interventions Service , an NHS Scotland clinic that provides specialist treatment for people suffering depression and OCD, published a somewhat withering assessment in October 2023 .

The Dundee clinic wrote that there is a lack of compelling evidence that suggests tDCS is a useful treatment for patients with anything other than mild depression.

Padberg predicts that a personalised approach will probably be required to give people optimal treatment.

MRI scans to adjust the intensity of electrical stimulation for each patient.

Padberg suggests that it may make it possible to use tDCS to serve more severely treatment-resistant patients successfully in future.