Can zapping ears with a mild electric current help depression?

A DEVICE that sends an electric current into nerve fibres found in the ears could help millions of people with depression.

The gadget, which can be used at home, works by transmitting mild currents through clips fixed to skin on the ears.

This stimulates a nerve connected to an area of the brain that regulates mood. Research shows that using the device for an hour a day can help patients who have not responded to anti-depressant drugs.

The current generated is too low to cause discomfort but enough to stimulate tiny branches of the vagus nerve found in the auricular concha – the shell-like cavity in the middle of the ear that leads to the ear canal.

According to the Royal College of Psychiatrists, one in five people suffers depression at some point in their lives. With prescription of antidepressants on the NHS reaching record levels, scientists have been exploring drug-free ways to treat depression in recent years.

One promising therapy is vagus nerve stimulation, which involves surgically implanting a small electrical device, similar to a pacemaker, under the skin near the collarbone.

A connecting lead under the skin is wrapped around the vagus nerve in the left side of the neck and delivers bursts of low-dose electricity.

It’s not clear exactly how it works but the main theory is that by stimulating areas of the brain involved in regulating mood, it suppresses feelings of depression.

But the technique requires major surgery to i mplant a battery- powered generator, exposing patients to the risk of wound infection around the surgical site and when batteries are changed.

Because of this, it’s only used on patients who failed to get better on at least four different anti-depressants.

This had led scientists to turn their attention to tiny branches of the vagus nerve found in the auricular concha in the latest study.

For the research experts at the China Academy of Medical Sciences in Beijing studied 49 patients with mild to moderate depression.

The patients were taken off their anti-depressants two weeks before the test so as not to skew the findings.

Half were then given the nerve stimulation, which was repeated twice a day, five days a week for a month.

The other half had exactly the same treatment but the clips were attached to a small fold of skin where there are no vagus nerve fibres.

The results, published in Biological Psychiatry, showed zapping the vagus nerve significantly reduced patients’ scores on the Hamilton Rating Scale – a system used to measure depression severity.

Anything between zero and seven is considered normal, while 20 or over is classed as moderate to severe. The nerve treatment slashed average scores from 28.50 to 15. Those on the dummy treatment dropped from 28.50 to 23 due to the placebo effect.

In a report researchers said: ‘ We found this type of vagus nerve stimulation can significantly reduce the severity of depression in patients.’

Psychiatrist Professor Danny Smith from the Institute of Health and Wellbeing at Glasgow University said the findings look ‘potentially promising’, but added: ‘This is a small trial and more research will be needed.’

‘Significantly reduce severity’