From electric eels to batteries to home-based direct neurofeedback!

Were you aware that electric fish, like the eel and catfish, were utilized for healing, including physical health ailments such as headaches and epilepsy, as well as for mental health challenges such as melancholia and hysteria? They also provided the inspiration for the invention of the first battery in 1800. Transcranial electrical stimulation has a long history rooted in ancient practices and modern scientific advances for therapeutic purposes. Now, with continued advances in technology and a growing understanding of the neuroplasticity of the brain, are we on the verge of a new in-home healing revolution using electricity?

I have been providing direct neurofeedback in my office to clients challenged by many symptoms, such as hyperreactivity, impulsivity, mental fog, panic attacks, and procrastination, for over 5 years now. This treatment has been offering long-term results to often elusive symptom relief without prescription medication. The results have been so heart-warming when clients experience and report positive changes in their lives in a relatively short period of time. Unfortunately, this treatment is not as readily available as medications and often times, not covered by insurance.

Early use of brain stimulation techniques included neurosurgeons mapping brain areas during surgery, which started in the early 20^th century and continues today. Then, in the 1970s, research into electrical stimulation as a treatment tool began in earnest with the development of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). In 1985, the first TMS device was developed (by Anthony Barker and colleagues) for use in research and therapeutic environments. Unfortunately, during this same time period, advances were also being made in pharmaceuticals for psychiatric disorders, which took away the attention from electrical therapy research.

The good news is, in 1998, researchers seeking more effective and targeted treatments with fewer side effects than pharmaceutical medications ignited a resurgence in electrical brain stimulation. New brain imaging techniques and stimulation methods brought tDCS to the forefront again, allowing research to focus on treating both neurological and psychiatric disorders. However, initially such tools were big and heavy and located primarily in research medical facilities due to the high cost of the equipment, making access to such care challenging.

As both TMS and tDCS gained increased recognition as effective treatments for conditions such as anxiety, depression, attention-deficit disorder and chronic pain, progress continued to improve computer processing capabilities, reducing the size and cost of such tools. At this point, private practitioners (such as me) were able to afford to purchase the equipment and offer this non-invasive treatment on a broader basis. Current research continues to expand by exploring tDCS in healthy individuals to enhance cognitive and neurological functioning, thus paving the way for this technology to be even more widely accessible.

So, similar to the history of electric cars, transcranial electrical stimulation (AKA direct neurofeedback) is back and here to stay. Perhaps one of the last remaining questions might be: Can this technology be deployed in our homes remotely? Well, a recent research study seems to support this potential inevitability.

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