Reacción a "Home brain stimulation device improves symptoms of depression, clinical trial finds"

This is a good quality study in which researchers randomly assigned participants to two groups: one received an active device and the other an inactive device. Participants did not know which group they belonged to, to prevent their expectations from influencing the results. Statistical analyses were rigorous. The study showed that both groups experienced an improvement in depressive symptoms, which is to be expected in this type of trial. However, the group using the active device showed a greater improvement. The size of this effect was 0.4, a value comparable to that observed with antidepressants.

This result is encouraging, as it suggests that this device could become one more alternative in the range of treatments available for depression, such as drugs like antidepressants, psychotherapies like cognitive behavioural therapy or physical exercise, among others. Given that each person has different preferences and responds differently to different treatments, having more options could increase the likelihood of finding the most appropriate intervention for each person.