I found an interesting article in The Wall Street Journal that details a device that I have heard of sometime ago, but that is now gaining momentum, CES.
Cranial Electrotherapy Stimulation (CES), which sends very weak microcurrent into the brain, was widely used in Russia in the 1940s as a sleep aid. Several battery-powered CES devices won FDA clearance to treat depression, anxiety and insomnia in the 1980s and 1990s, largely because they were similar to other grandfathered devices, and some have been quietly selling to home users ever since. Electromedical Products International Inc. has been selling its Alpha-Stim devices for both pain relief and anxiety and depression since 1981. Many users are military veterans.
Then the bit about Fisher Wallace Laboratories that really got me:
Last fall, a newcomer in the field, Fisher Wallace Laboratories, launched a YouTube campaign lampooning the side effects of anti-depressants and promoting its cranial stimulator as an alternative. Powered by two AA batteries, the device was sends 1 milliampere of alternating current—1/1,000th the voltage used in ECT—through a patient's head via small, wet pads placed at the temples. The company recommends using the device 20 minutes once or twice a day for 30 to 45 days, and several times a week afterward.
Cranial Electrotherapy Stimulation (CES), which sends very weak microcurrent into the brain, was widely used in Russia in the 1940s as a sleep aid. Several battery-powered CES devices won FDA clearance to treat depression, anxiety and insomnia in the 1980s and 1990s, largely because they were similar to other grandfathered devices, and some have been quietly selling to home users ever since. Electromedical Products International Inc. has been selling its Alpha-Stim devices for both pain relief and anxiety and depression since 1981. Many users are military veterans.
Then the bit about Fisher Wallace Laboratories that really got me:
Last fall, a newcomer in the field, Fisher Wallace Laboratories, launched a YouTube campaign lampooning the side effects of anti-depressants and promoting its cranial stimulator as an alternative. Powered by two AA batteries, the device was sends 1 milliampere of alternating current—1/1,000th the voltage used in ECT—through a patient's head via small, wet pads placed at the temples. The company recommends using the device 20 minutes once or twice a day for 30 to 45 days, and several times a week afterward.
The company, founded by electronics entrepreneur Charles Avery Fisher and Martin Wallace in 2007, says the device works by boosting endorphins, serotonin and dopamine and reducing cortisol
Does it work? Columbia University psychiatrist Richard P. Brown says he has used the device with 400 severely depressed patients and that more than 70% find relief—about twice the rate of anti-depressants. "I'm seeing some patients smile for the first time in 20 years," says Dr. Brown, who, like other doctors interviewed for this column, has no financial ties to the company.
Other neuroscientists are wary. "In my assessment of the literature, the level of evidence to support those kinds of claims is not sufficient at this point," says Dr. George. I believe that this is the doctor that I either emailed or spoke to before the VNS was put into my chest.
Dr. Mayberg adds, "It's not a great idea to be exposing your brain to electricity of any type without medical supervision."
Much of the clinical data supporting CES devices is outdated; a few small placebo-controlled trials of the Fisher Wallace device are planned at Harvard, Columbia and the University of Toledo.
"I think a lot of people who use it will tell you it can be very helpful," says Andres San Martin, a Columbia psycho-pharmacologist who says about 50 of his patients use the device, along with antidepressants. Some use it just half the year for Seasonal Affective Disorder, and some have found it helpful in quitting smoking. "But I am looking forward to the double-blind placebo-controlled trials," he says.
