Portable neurostimulation device trial for remote sufferers of depression
The University of New South Wales School of Psychiatry, based at the Black Dog Institute, is trialling transcranial Direct Current Simulation (tDCS) — a non-invasive, low-amp treatment which stimulates the front part of the brain via a pair of electrodes placed on the head.
Thirty-four participants across the country have been testing the smartphone-sized device for 20 minutes a day over a month-long period, and UNSW School of Psychiatry professor, Colleen Loo, said the results — published in the Journal of Affective Disorders — are promising.
"People who are depressed, their brains become less flexible than people who are not depressed," Professor Loo said.
"Their brains had gone back to a normal level of neuroplasticity.”You could say in some ways it appears to be repairing the way the brain is responding. It is restoring the flexibility to how you respond to the world around you."
Potential benefit for remote residents
Professor Loo said tDCS would be especially helpful for patients living in regional and remote areas.
"Suicide and self-harm rates are higher for people living in remote regions," she said.
"We have very good treatments for people living in the city, but it is often difficult to access the same level of expertise or neuro treatment when you are living in a country town or rural area.
"Patients going through our research study say this is just like the battery-on-the-tongue experience we did when we were kids, but obviously now it is stimulating the brain not the tongue."
Participants in the trial underwent cranial measurements and were given detailed training on how to self-administer the treatment.
Treatment not risk-free, doctor warns
Martin Sale from the Queensland Brain Institute said a lot of work needed to be done to predict where current would flow in the brain.
He said it is important that areas of the brain are targeted precisely.
"It's conceivable that other brain regions might also be stimulated, which might have unwanted consequences," Dr Sale said.
"If the electrodes were placed in the wrong position and these regions repeatedly targeted, you could imagine that the longer-term changes in that region's function could also occur," he said.
"There are many factors that need to be controlled for, but the results do provide encouraging signs that tDCS can be applied safely and effectively from a remote location."
'Encouraging signs'
Professor Loo said more studies needed to be done before tDCS could be rolled out as a widespread treatment.
But she said the technology has the potential to be of ongoing benefit to users, and not just in terms of their mental health.
"If you have a treatment that is expensive, that you have to come through the treatment centre everyday and costs a few hundred dollars," she said.
"It is hard to maintain that treatment for months or years."
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