A headset worn at home that zaps the brain with the energy of a 9-volt battery could help relieve symptoms of depression, a new study shows. The study, which was published last week in the journal Nature Medicine, found that 87 adults with at least moderate depression who used the headset for 10 weeks had a greater improvement in their depression symptoms than 87 others who wore a similar-looking inactive headset over the same time period. What’s more, twice as many people in the group that got the active treatment reported remission of their depressive symptoms compared with people in the placebo group: 45 per cent vs.
22 per cent. “Remission means they don’t have an active mood episode anymore,” said Dr. Rodrigo Machado-Vieira, a psychiatrist who directs the Experimental Therapeutics and Molecular Pathophysiology Program at UTHealth Houston, which was one of the sites that recruited patients for the study.
In other words, if patients who had achieved remission using the device took a questionnaire asking them about their symptoms, they might report some issues — perhaps sleep problems or anxiety — but they wouldn’t score high enough to qualify as clinically depressed, he explained. Machado-Vieira said the company that makes the headset funded the study, but the money went into a general research fund at his university. He said he personally had no financial stake in the product.
Rebalancing brain activity in depression The device is available in the UK, Norway.
