3 ms·

Nothing pseudo-science about tDCS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcranial_direct-current_stimulation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcranial_direct-current

by Geee 13y ago

Nothing pseudo-science about tDCS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcranial_direct-current_stimulation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcranial_direct-current_sti...

chasing 13y ago
Interesting. Also: http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/psychiatry/specialty_areas/brain_stimulation/tdcs.html http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/psychiatry/specialty_areas/br... At any rate, if these were researchers at Johns Hopkins, that'd be one thing. But I won't believe that this product does what they claim unless they do actual studies with it and post them on their site. But. I suspect they won't. Because I suspect they're using the Soylent scientific process: "We tried it on ourselves and it seems to work! And didn't kill us!"
- Geee 13y ago
  tDCS devices are simple like that, just DC current in your brain. There has been a lot of discussion about them on HN: https://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=tdcs&start=0 https://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=tdcs&start=0
acqq 13y ago
If not pseudo science, then still more a wishful thinking and placebo than a proved method: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23084964 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23084964
- kanzure 13y ago
  That seems to be an article about using transcranial stimulation to treat major depression, but you're replying to something that didn't even mention major depression. Which specifically are you calling pseudoscience: using transcranial stimulation to treat major depression, or is the very belief that current can be routed through the skull the piece of pseudoscience here? Thanks.
  - acqq 13y ago
    What I said was "still more a wishful thinking and placebo than a proved method" and cited "a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized, double-blind and sham-controlled trials" which concludes "The clinical utility of tDCS as a treatment for MD remains unclear when clinically relevant outcomes such as response and remission rates are considered." That means that I don't doubt that you can let the DC flow through your brain but that I believe that even 200 years after the first of such experiments it's still more wishful thinking and placebo than factually "double-blind and sham-controlled" proved that such treatments have some positive lasting effects. On another side, I wouldn't be surprised that some kind of short-term effects can be observed (although I must admit I'm unfamiliar with such, what I know is that yesterday I saw the article writing about the benefits of such treatments in the kind of magazine which also writes about chemtrails(!)). Can you please tell me which controlled studies you consider important?

by Geee 13y ago

Nothing pseudo-science about tDCS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcranial_direct-current_stimulation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcranial_direct-current_sti...

chasing 13y ago

Interesting. Also: http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/psychiatry/specialty_areas/brain_stimulation/tdcs.html http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/psychiatry/specialty_areas/br... At any rate, if these were researchers at Johns Hopkins, that'd be one thing. But I won't believe that this product does what they claim unless they do actual studies with it and post them on their site. But. I suspect they won't. Because I suspect they're using the Soylent scientific process: "We tried it on ourselves and it seems to work! And didn't kill us!"

Geee 13y ago
tDCS devices are simple like that, just DC current in your brain. There has been a lot of discussion about them on HN: https://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=tdcs&start=0 https://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=tdcs&start=0

acqq 13y ago

If not pseudo science, then still more a wishful thinking and placebo than a proved method: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23084964 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23084964

kanzure 13y ago
That seems to be an article about using transcranial stimulation to treat major depression, but you're replying to something that didn't even mention major depression. Which specifically are you calling pseudoscience: using transcranial stimulation to treat major depression, or is the very belief that current can be routed through the skull the piece of pseudoscience here? Thanks.
- acqq 13y ago
  What I said was "still more a wishful thinking and placebo than a proved method" and cited "a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized, double-blind and sham-controlled trials" which concludes "The clinical utility of tDCS as a treatment for MD remains unclear when clinically relevant outcomes such as response and remission rates are considered." That means that I don't doubt that you can let the DC flow through your brain but that I believe that even 200 years after the first of such experiments it's still more wishful thinking and placebo than factually "double-blind and sham-controlled" proved that such treatments have some positive lasting effects. On another side, I wouldn't be surprised that some kind of short-term effects can be observed (although I must admit I'm unfamiliar with such, what I know is that yesterday I saw the article writing about the benefits of such treatments in the kind of magazine which also writes about chemtrails(!)). Can you please tell me which controlled studies you consider important?