Ybrain Develops Wearable Headband To Treat Depression

South Korean startup Ybrain has commercialized Mindd, the first wearable headband device that treats depression.

Mindd treats depression via transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). tDCS works by delivering a constant stream of low electrical current via electrodes on a patient’s scalp, 20% of which reaches the brain. Patients feel a tingling sensation as the current passes through. Various studies have found that tDCS is at least partly effective in relieving symptoms of clinical depression and Alzheimer’s disease.

The 150-gram Mindd device conducts electricity via a saline-soaked absorbent pad touching the forehead. It delivers a tiny current stream to the brain’s frontal lobe, an area associated with depression symptoms.

Ybrain launched Mindd in March after receiving approval from South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. It has since deployed the device at 12 major hospitals in and near Seoul, but the company envisions home treatment in the future.

“Though we’ve begun by deploying our device at only hospitals for now, our broader goal is to help anyone with depression easily receive treatment from home and to eventually raise depression treatment rates around the world,” Ybrain’s founding CEO Lee Ki-won said in an interview with The Korea Herald.

In addition to Mindd, Ybrain is developing neuroimaging technology incorporating biocompatible materials and software that tracks brain activity and tDCS treatment.

South Korea’s 2015 suicide rate of 24.1 per 100,000 people is highest among the developed member states in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Public mental health treatment presents a significant stigma for South Koreans, so effective at-home treatment of depression could help reduce the country’s suicide rate.