Personalized brain stimulation significantly decreases depression in volunteers. The results of the respective research were published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, reports MedicalXpress.

Our brains are full of electricity, billions of signals being sent each day. And when we're sitting with our thoughts—awake with our eyes closed—particular electrical patterns at 8–12 Hz dominate our brains. They are called alpha oscillations.

In people who battle major depressive disorder, these alpha waves in the left and right sides of the prefrontal cortex are often out of balance; the left side is often overactive.

Now, for the first time, researchers have developed and successfully tested a closed-loop system that can measure a person's individual alpha frequencies and stimulate the brain with a low-level alternating electrical current to bring balance to alpha oscillations.

In each hour-long session—for five consecutive days—this closed-loop system allowed the researchers to continually measure alpha waves and mete out low levels of electricity to help the brain bring its alpha oscillations back into synchronicity.

In the aforesaid data show that 80% of 15 patients experienced marked improvement in their depression symptoms immediately and throughout the following two weeks, according to standard clinical tests and self-reporting.

But this pilot study had no placebo group, where patients would receive a fake intervention. It could confirm that the observed improvements were not related to self-inspiration.

If the effectiveness of this method is proven in future experiments, it can become an alternative antidepressant.