Depression Treatment You Can Do at Home: Brain Stimulation Goes Fully Remote

If a treatment can be done safely at home, it opens the door for people who can’t manage frequent appointments or who live far from specialized care.

An October 2024 study by Woodham, published in Nature Medicine, evaluated a 10-week home-based transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) program for adults with moderate-to-severe major depressive disorder in a randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled trial. Transcranial stimulation has been used in the U.S. for about 15 years to treat treatment-resistant depression and helps roughly one-third of patients. In this study, active at-home tDCS produced a statistically significant greater reduction in depressive symptoms (measured by the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale) compared with sham, along with higher response and remission rates and no difference in discontinuation, supporting the feasibility, acceptability, and safety of home-based stimulation.

Learn More: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-024-03305-y