An editorial in The Guardian peels apart the hype around a “cloth cap that could help treat depression” – the product from a Spain-based startup called Neuroelectrics.
The $11,000 cloth helmet contains electrodes and sensors, and purports to work much like an EEG. Neuroelectrics is in the midst of a $20 million round for this cap, and has been gaining some repute in its potential as a non-drug mental illness therapy. It’s based in Barcelona but also has a U.S. office in Cambridge; the idea is to create a device for home use that doctors can monitor remotely.
Penned by Cardiff University neuroscience doctor and lecturer Dean Burnett, the Guardian editorial takes a careful look at the upside of conservatism in medical innovation.
The problem is that when a new development occurs or a new approach is found, it doesn’t automatically mean it’s widely applicable or even effective for everyone. The brain is furiously complicated. There is no magic bullet for brain problems [Note: you shouldn’t use bullets, magic or otherwise, when dealing with the brain].
However, when things are reported for mass consumption, the nuance can be lost, and caveats are often absent. What we do often get, though, is a rush to lionise something because it seems promising.
Electroencephalography, or EEGs, have long been used to feed electric currents into the brain to treat neurological and psychiatric disease. Beyond mental illness, the cap could be used to help temper diseases like epilepsy, Neuroelectrics says.
They’re already being sold to research facilities, including in the U.S., for research in PTSD. Neuroelectrics brought in about $2 million in revenue from these sales last year, The Guardian reports. That the cap is showing immediate market potential may be helped along by the fact that Europe has a much simpler regulatory path for such medical devices. But as Burnett points out:
Treatment is another aspect of the cap’s advertised function. The article suggests that a variety of neurological problems could be treated by using the cap’s electrodes to channel a low-level current through “problem” areas of the brain. In terms of evidence, a procedure called Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)has been shown to be useful in treating depression and other conditions, but TMS involves powerful magnetic fields being used to stimulate specific brain regions, which requires bulky equipment and trained operators. Ergo, it’s hard to see how this, although a proven treatment, could be packaged into a marketable product.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
And then there’s the fact that Neuroelectrics president Giulio Ruffini even conceded that the hype’s tremendous in this area:
“I think there are too many people using homemade devices. There is too much hype. I don’t think you can get good results from this technology just by using a battery-driven large sponge which you can do at home. You need something more specific,” he told The Guardian.
[IMAGE: Courtesy of Neuroelectrics]
