ICYMI: New Trial Sheds Light on Potential At-Home Depression Treatment

The Swedish company Flow Neuroscience developed the headset and funded the trial.

Flow Neuroscience

A wireless headset could one day be a home treatment option for people with major depressive disorder (MDD). The headset designed by the Swedish company Flow Neuroscience offers a self-administered approach to transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), which works by delivering a mild electrical current to alter brain activity in specific regions. The results of a phase II clinical trial evaluating the tool’s efficacy were published Oct. 21 in Nature Medicine.

The trial involved 174 people who were diagnosed with MDD and going through a depressive episode of at least moderate severity at the time. Over the course of 10 weeks, participants wore the headset during 30-minute sessions which were supervised remotely by a professional. Half of them received consistent electrical stimulation to their dorsolateral prefrontal cortex — a brain region involved with decision-making and cognition and frequently less active among people with depression, according to Nature — while the other half served as a control group and did not receive active treatment.

Around 45% of participants who received the stimulation achieved remission of their depressive symptoms, compared to almost 22% of the control group. Although the findings are evidence of the headset’s safety and efficacy, they also come with some caveats. For example, people whose depression didn’t respond to at least three interventions were barred from the study, according to The Conversation, and the majority of participants were white, reflecting the trial’s limited demographics. Still, the study offers some novel insight into the technology’s potential.

Big Picture: Major depressive disorder can cause significant suffering for those affected. What’s more, just under a third of cases are considered treatment resistant, meaning they don’t respond to antidepressant medications. Neuromodulation therapies like the one delivered by this headset offer an alternative approach to drug-based treatments for depression, but existing treatments require patients to make time for regular visits to a clinic. A viable home-based option could be a game changer, but it’s not yet clear whether this headset will fill that niche, at least in the United States. Flow Neuroscience, the funder and sponsor of the trial, already markets the device in several countries around the globe and is currently seeking FDA approval, according to CNN.

Read More: At-home brain stimulation could be promising depression treatment, trial hints. Live Science

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About the Author

Bella Isaacs-Thomas

Bella is the Staff Writer and Editor for BrainFacts. She previously worked as a digital science reporter at PBS NewsHour, where she was named a fellow in the 2022-2023 class of the National Science-Health-Environment Reporting Fellowships (SHERF) and earned a 2021 D.C. Science Writers Association Newsbrief Award for writing. She graduated from the University of Michigan with a bachelor's degree in 2018.