"Take-home" functional electrical stimulation for depression: protocol for a prototype development and proof of concept randomized controlled trial.

ABSTRACT:

Background

One-third of patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) will not achieve a clinically meaningful response to available conventional treatments. More effective neurostimulation treatments are difficult to access and are associated with high hospital delivery costs. Patients would benefit from more efficacious and well-tolerated home-based neurostimulation treatments, which could be self-administered at a frequency required to treat MDD, maintain response, and reduce relapse. A potential novel intervention for MDD is bilateral functional electrical stimulation (FES) of the facial muscles. The portable FES stimulator delivers electrical current to excitable tissues and is suitable for home-based use. Based on the preliminary work demonstrating the feasibility of FES for

SUBMITTER: Gholamali Nezhad F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12049065 | biostudies-literature | 2025 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature