Brain stimulator for home use relieves symptoms of depression
Monday, October 21, 2024, 6:18 pm
In addition to medications and psychological help, transcranial magnetic stimulation is an anti-depression therapy that involves placing electrodes on the patient’s head that send electrical impulses of 0.5 to 2 milliamps to brain structures. This treatment, which is currently being used in medical centers, could also be carried out at the patient’s home if positive data from a study published in the journal Nature Medicine are confirmed.
The phase 2 clinical trial, conducted by researchers at UTHealth in Houston (USA), the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London and the University of East London (both in the UK), tested effectiveness in 174 people. and the safety of a transcranial magnetic stimulation device used at home with online professional help for the treatment of major depression.
The study authors divided the participants into two groups: one of them received the treatment, and the other received a placebo procedure (they also had the machine turned on, but no food was supplied). Ten weeks later, symptoms had improved in both groups, but the improvement was 0.4 points greater on the Hamilton Depression Scale (a questionnaire that measures major depression) in the treatment group.
“The results of this study may represent an important advance in the field of mood disorders to improve vitality and therapeutic response with this new neuromodulation technique,” says Rodrigo Machado-Vieira, a researcher at UTHealth in Houston. However, other experts cited by SMC Spain have expressed doubts about this progress, believing that ten weeks is a very short period to test the effectiveness of the treatment.