When you experience depression, there are lower levels of activity in the front area of your brain. This is the part responsible for regulating mood, sleep and motivation.
Your brain runs on electricity; Flow sends gentle electrical impulses into the area that has slowed down. This gets cells firing again and reduces your symptoms of depression.
The technology is called tDCS - or transcranial Direct Current Stimulation.
Until now it was expensive and only available at clinics. With Flow you can access the treatment at home.
Our technology uses a non-invasive brain stimulation method called tDCS.
Delivered in 1-3 working days. 77% see a clinical improvement within 3 weeks1.
In a clinical trial, 57% of Flow users were no longer clinically depressed at 10 weeks2. And no one experienced serious side effects.
No contract. Delivered in 1-3 working days.
You'll need a smartphone with bluetooth to control your stimulations via the Flow app. The app also offers free behavioural therapy courses.
Stimulate for 30 minutes, 5 times a week.
After 3 weeks, reduce to twice a week.
The initial Flow treatment is 10 weeks. If Flow is helpful during these 10 weeks, we recommend you to continue for at least another 6 to 12 months, even if you have become symptom-free.
Our team of clinicians have developed detailed guidance on how to use Flow which you can read below.
Flow’s mission is to make mental health care more accessible.
Flow’s tDCS device is now being used in the NHS across primary care, community mental health, perinatal mental health and crisis services. We’ve had overwhelmingly positive feedback from both healthcare professionals and patients and hope to expand into more services in the near future.
Yes. The Flow device was designed by experts and is based on tDCS techniques that have been used in clinics for over a decade to treat depression. The Flow device has undergone research that confirms it is a safe and effective treatment for depression. tDCS is also listed as a treatment for depression on the NHS website.
Read more about Safety and Precautions here.
We'd advise you to talk to a medical professional before changing anything about your depression treatment, but especially under the following circumstances:
If the Flow treatment is helpful for the first 10 weeks of your treatment, we recommend you to continue for at least another 6 to 12 months, even if you have become symptom-free.
Our team of clinicians have developed detailed guidance on how to use Flow which you can read here.
Flow has been tested on depression. We don't have any specific clinical research on how it impacts anxiety on its own.
However, every week people who use Flow answer a questionnaire and we've found that around 66% have less feelings of unease after using Flow for 3 weeks.
We recommend talking to your Doctor if you're considering using Flow for a stand-alone diagnosis of anxiety.
Yes - Flow is perfectly safe to use with antidepressants, and many people use it alongside medication. In our clinical trial we saw that using antidepressants alongside Flow actually enhances the treatment. 69% of people who used both Flow and antidepressants were no longer clinically depressed at 10 weeks (compared with 51% of those who just used Flow).
If you are thinking about lowering your dose of antidepressants, or coming off them completely, you should talk to your Doctor first.
Flow is a medical device, under the following circumstances you should take extra precaution and talk to your Doctor before you use it:
Using the headset feels different for everyone. A number of factors will affect how you experience Flow, for example, sleep quality and skin sensitivity and therefore sensations may vary among sessions. It usually feels a little more intense during the first 3 minutes of a stimulation session.
Some people have reported not feeling anything while others have reported feeling an itchy, slightly tingling sensation; like a stinging or a mild burning sensation on the forehead.
Please visit our Help Centre to find answers to other commonly asked questions.
1Self-reported data through a widely used depression questionnaire called the MADRS-s. A clinical improvement is a reduction of 3 points in their depression score. Sample size = 1,296.
2“Home-based transcranial direct current stimulation RCT in major depression” - link