Flow - Depression treatment

Flow Neuroscience

About this app

The Flow depression treatment is a free personal guide to help you understand and improve your mental health.

Flow represents a new chapter in the understanding and treatment of depression, based on the latest psychology and neuroscience research.

The app can be used on its own and offers an education programme with over 50 sessions. The sessions cover a range of topics from behavioural coaching and lifestyle habits, such as, meditation, sleep, diet and exercise. To track changes over time, the app includes the MADRS-s depression test.

Used as a companion tool for the Flow brain stimulation headset, this is a holistic approach to treating depression. The type of stimulation used in the Flow headset, transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), has long been used in clinical settings to treat depression. With Flow, you can now access tDCS in a remote device from your own home. To use the headset you will need the app.

The Flow treatment is based on decades of clinical research and is supported by more than 20 randomised double-blind studies. The Flow headset is approved as a medical device (CE) in the EU and UK for the treatment of depression. Order it at: https://flowneuroscience.com

The programme contains over 50 education sessions split into 7 courses, covering topics such as:

- Exercise

Physical exercise has been shown to have a similar effect to antidepressant medication when it comes to reducing and preventing depressive symptoms. Flow education explores the types of exercise that are beneficial.

- Meditation

Meditation is practised by many people around the world as mental “exercise” for the brain. Flow will give you exercises to follow but also show you the neurological basis of why meditation is good for managing stress in your everyday life.

- Sleep

Did you know that sleeping for only six hours each night for two nights in a row is equivalent to being continuously awake for 24 hours? Flow will educate you on sleep hygiene, why we sleep and why sleeping is one of four important pillars for overcoming depression.

- Nutrition

The nutrition sessions will advise and encourage you to eat in a way that science has proven reduces inflammation in the brain, thereby alleviating depression. Spoiler alert: sugar is one of the big villains.

Ratings and reviews

This is a review on the app, not the headset as I'm only on the second day. The APP is far too "do this, do that" and anyone that knows depression, knows that's a bad idea. The fact it's authorized by NHS doesn't fill me with confidence, they gave me serotonin syndrome which is why I'm now trying flow. This app will just annoy anyone with major depression, like me. It's patronising and overwhelming. I now just use it to activate the headset.

I only really wanted the device, as I would like to slowly come off medication and thought if it works, this would be a good way to help. However you have to follow this ridiculous app which appears to be designed for people who know nothing about depression. They are set up like a chat bot where you have to 'pretend' to have stupid conversations. it might be helpful to some, but you should have the option to choose whether to follow the courses. Patronising and annoying.

I've just had my 5th session of the flow headset, and combined it with working through the sections of the app, and following through with the advice given on it, such as exercising, meditating, dieting etc, and it has all been working brilliantly for me so far. the app runs smooth, very helpful in terms of the information it gives you, ive never had any issues with it so far.

What’s new

The most comprehensive solution for treating depression just got even better.
- New 555333 stimulation schedule increasing the amount of stimulations in the strengthening phase
- Refer a friend feature has been added to the settings menu
- Bug fixes and stability improvements.