A HEADSET that can be used at home could help cure depression, a study has found. The device, which stimu lates the brain using electronic pulses , could have a "significant impact" on the future treatment of the condition, experts have said. The treatment relieves all symptoms of depression in more than half of patients (57.
5 per cent) in just 10 weeks, the research suggests. The study also showed that the headset, which zaps the brain, was able to improve symptoms in 64.2 per cent of the patients involved in the trial.
No serious side effects associated with using the device were reported in the research published in the Nature Medicine journal . The Flow headset works by stimulating brain activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in the front of the brain, an area linked with depression. Read more on deptression It delivers weak electrical currents, called transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), through electrodes placed on the forehead.
A camera in an app helps the user put on the headset correctly. It also controls the electrical current using Bluetooth. According to the latest available data from the Office for National Statistics, one in six people externally has experienced moderate to severe depression .
Most read in Health Allan Young, chairman of mood disorders, and director of the centre for Affective Disorders in the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King's College London, said: "These results are very exciting and are poised to.