This little gadget may look like an MP3 player, but there is no music coming out of the ear buds. The only thing coming out of this device is some very bright light meant to cure the winter blues. Light therapy has been shown to be an effective treatment for Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), but contrary to what most people believe, the light doesn’t have to reach the eyes to be effective: it only has to get to the brain.

The ear buds attached to the VALKEE Bright Light Headset emit strong beams of light directly to the brain via your ear canals, delivering relief from SAD, which is thought to be brought on partially by the decreased sunlight in winter months. The photo-sensitive portions of the brain that respond to light therapy can easily be accessed through the ears, according to the people behind the VALKEE headset, so the ear bud method makes sense. The headset is not available in the U.S., but is sold in most of Europe for a mere €185.

The post Some Light Listening: Earbuds Beam Light Right Into Brain first appeared on Gajitz.

The FDA recently approved this very scary-looking chair as a treatment for depression. No, it’s not a lobotomy chair, though you’d be forgiven for letting your mind leap to that conclusion. It’s the Neurostar Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) chair from Neurotronics. Although it looks like a pain machine, it’s actually used to deliver pulsed magnetic fields to stimulate the parts of the brain thought to control mood.

It’s done very well in trials so far, with at least half of the participants reporting significant improvement after 30 in-office sessions. This treatment could be a life-changing opportunity for people who suffer from depression but have experienced intolerable side effects from medication. It’s done on an outpatient basis, in a psychiatrist’s office with the patient fully awake. Trial participants reported some mild discomfort in the treatment area, but nothing more severe than that.

Depression is a serious, and often debilitating, condition. It affects an estimated 14 million people just in America every year. Drugs have been available to control the condition for years, but not every medication works for every patient, and some of them cause side effects that are nearly as bad or worse than the initial depression. A treatment like this could entirely change the way we think about and treat depression.

The post Pills no More: FDA OKs Magnetic Therapy For Depression first appeared on Gajitz.