Backed by science
20+ medical trials, 300 studies
25 years of clinical research
tDCS has been used in clinics for over 25 years to treat depression. There are multiple sources of evidence that show it is effective and there are no serious side effects. These range from placebo-controlled clinical trials, to NHS studies and open label trials. We have gathered the most prominent research papers in the tDCS community and listed them below.
Placebo-controlled randomised clinical trial
Published in the authoritative Nature Medicine, the design of this trial is considered the gold standard method for evaluating efficacy and took place at Kings College London, UTHealth Houston and the University of East London.
The clinical trial, which lasted 10 weeks, was the largest of its kind and involved patients in the US and UK. Results showed that 57.5% of patients in the treatment group went into remission (meaning that they are no longer considered to be depressed), whilst 64.2% were measured to have an improvement in symptoms of at least 50%. Patients who took a 10-week course of the treatment were about twice as likely to see their depression go into remission than those in a control group who performed the same procedure with the current switched off.
No serious side effects associated with using the device were reported from the treatment group.
Independently published NHS studies
5 NHS services have been using Flow, they each have independently published their results.
Clinical research into tDCS
The Flow brain stimulation treatment is based on decades of clinical research with the most recent meta-analyses showing that tDCS has similar efficacy to other treatments but with fewer side effects.
Across 20+ randomised controlled trials, tDCS has been shown to be superior to placebo/sham and no serious adverse events have been observed. tDCS provides an alternative to medication that is effective, safe and accessible.