![]() The verse in this graphic spurs me on to ask myself: We are deluged daily with news that is causing anxiety and anger levels to rise within us. It appears that our society has lost the ability to be civil and speak with decency and respect. Whatever you think of the medical community, this “conservatism” could be viewed as a highly-principled insistence on having sufficient evidence that running currents through people’s brains will help before they start doing so en-masse.ĭean Burnett is a doctor of neuroscience, and tutors and lectures at Cardiff University.By Marsha OctoCharacter, Devotion, Faith, Inspirational, Reflection Quotes in the article such as “the medical community is conservative” imply that the only obstacle stopping these devices from treating depression is the reluctance of medical professionals to use them. At present, this is an encouraging possibility rather than an established fact. However, the reporting seems to imply that home use is imminent.It is important to be wary of focusing too much on how the product could help people with mental health problems such as depression. The product mentioned in the article is currently intended for the medicine and research fields, not the average customer. Such things should not be done lightly by your average person with no relevant expertise. We’re talking about directly altering the brain’s activity with an electrical device here. for the gaming community) leading to a lot of concern from scientists. It has been shown to increase concentration and performance in tasks though, and as such a number of items claiming to provide this effect have become available (e.g. There is certainly no concrete evidence at present to suggest it can be used to treat depression, although it’s early days yet. TDCS is a very new method and there’s still a lot of research to be done on exactly how effective it is (if at all). This is transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), where a current is passed through specific brain regions, intended to increase activity of those regions and improve their functioning, treating certain conditions as a result. The item in the article, however, apparently “treats the conditions by stimulating the brain with a low electrical current”. ![]() Ergo, it’s hard to see how this, although a proven treatment, could be packaged into a marketable product. In terms of evidence, a procedure called Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) has been shown to be useful in treating depression and other conditions, but TMS involves powerful magnetic fields being used to stimulate specific brain regions, which requires bulky equipment and trained operators. The article suggests that a variety of neurological problems could be treated by using the cap’s electrodes to channel a low-level current through “problem” areas of the brain. Treatment is another aspect of the cap’s advertised function. The article implies that the cap would be able to both identify and treat depression, but diagnosis of depression is not claimed on the Neuroelectrics website. Using EEG readings to reliably and accurately diagnose depression would certainly be a tremendous achievement, but nobody has managed this so far. While it is true that EEG is used to diagnose certain conditions such as epilepsy and sleep disorders, its current use is somewhat limited. It also mentions numerous EEG studies, including a new piece of research developing EEG biomarkers for neurodegenerative diseases. The Neuroelectrics website references different conditions in which it is currently clinical practice to use EEG for monitoring or diagnosis. What we do often get, though, is a rush to lionise something because it seems promising.įor example, EEG. However, when things are reported for mass consumption, the nuance can be lost, and caveats are often absent. There is no magic bullet for brain problems. The problem is that when a new development occurs or a new approach is found, it doesn’t automatically mean it’s widely applicable or even effective for everyone. ![]() Sometimes they succeed, but probably not as often as they’d like. work hard to find new and inventive methods for doing so, or refining and improving existing ones. The fields of science dedicated to researching and, hopefully, treating serious brain-based problems like depression, stroke, personality disorder etc. While this would obviously be great news to the millions of people who deal with such conditions every day, such claims should be treated with a considerable amount of caution.
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