Using Frontal Brain Asymmetry to Control Sensory Treatment of Anxiety and Depression

摘要

Anxiety and depression are increasingly common disorders. Globally, more than 350 million people of all ages suffer from these illnesses. Depression and anxiety are treated with medication, psychotherapy, or electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), either individually or in combination. Drugs and ECT are not cures and often involve unpalatable adverse side-effects necessitating safer more sustainable alternatives. The antidepressant properties of bright light are well established and aroma stimulation has been shown to improve mood and reduce markers for anxiety and depression. A combinatory therapy of light and smell stimulation has been shown to have a positive impact on mood, physiological markers for stress, anxiety and depression. In particular, negative alphawave brain asymmetry, an objective marker for depression, is reduced by a 15min stimulus treatment. The proposal outlined in this paper is that real-time frontal alpha asymmetry, recorded by EEG, be used to control the frequency, duration and amplitude of the light and aroma signals to optimise the effectiveness of the treatment. The object of this treatment is to rebalance the frontal asymmetry restoring a frontal activity representative of a non-depressed, non-anxious state.