Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust (LPT) in the UK is expanding a pilot on suicide prevention, using the Flow Neuroscience brain-stimulation headset, following remarkable early results.

The non-invasive device, designed and engineered in Sweden, uses transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) to gently stimulate parts of the brain that help to regulate mood, sleep and motivation.

Depression affects the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, causing brain cells to become less active and disrupting their natural electrical communication patterns. Flow uses a very gentle current to help restore healthy brain cell activity patterns in this area of the brain.

A rigorous, randomised placebo-controlled, clinical study showed significant improvements after 10 weeks of use with users experiencing measurable benefits across all tracked symptoms – mood, focus, sleep, zest for life, anxiety and emotional involvement. More than two decades of research has shown no serious side effects.

LPT is the first NHS mental health crisis service to pilot the Flow Neuroscience headset, at the Bradgate Mental Health Unit. The trust was looking for ways to offer hope to patients for whom traditional treatments had either failed or weren’t accessible.

So far 165 patients have used the headset in the pilot and the results have been extremely encouraging. Suicidal thoughts were reduced by one third within three weeks and by two thirds within ten weeks. All of the people in the pilot had been experiencing moderate or severe depression and 71 per cent showed reliable reductions in symptoms.

As tDCS therapy is not funded by the NHS, this pilot has relied on the fundraising efforts of Raising Health, as well as other charitable donations. A recent cash injection of a further £40,000 has enabled 150 more headsets to be acquired and the pilot to be extended to other services, including community mental health teams and the adult eating disorders inpatient service.

Dr Mark McConnochie, consultant psychiatrist at LPT, said: “There is real potential to support these patients in treating their depression and getting their lives back. Longer term, the Flow headsets could help us to provide an additional, effective treatment option, particularly if medication isn’t available.”

McConnochie admits to initially being sceptical about a treatment that was so effective and with no side effects, but says in his own practise he has seen people get better who haven’t responded to anything else.

Sherif Abdullah, consultant psychiatrist and joint pilot lead, said he is proud to be able to pioneer this treatment on the NHS and hopes further access could be made available to patients, helping a whole big community of patients struggling with depression.

As mental wellness becomes an increasing problem, being one of the leading causes of workplace absenteeism in the UK and leading to an alarming increase in hospitalisation among young people this could offer an effective solution, tying in with the government’s intention to make the use of technology a focus of its NHS reforms.