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

I very much appreciate the app and its contents. It shares complex and deep knowledge through a seemingly shallow and easy to understand dialog. My problems with it are few: 1 you cannot go back if you wrongly click an option so you have to restart the entire lesson in case you miss click 2 I hate talking to bots especially when the illusion of a dialog is present 3 some functions of the app are incomplete like playing memory games while we wait for the session to be over.

Note! Score is for the app, NOT the effectiveness of the treatment. I can't comment on that yet. Core functionality is OK. However, I don't like having to sit through the tutorial after first use. I already have the thing on my head ready to go. If diagnostics need to be run, then fine, give me a short checklist to go through, please. Another thing I've noticed is that the X on the yellow cards do nothing. I expect an X on somthing to be a means of closing / dismissing. ❤️

Quite good for a while then nothing. The device can only be used for a limited time which was partly why I gave up on it. You cannot use it to suit yourself. The positive effect was roughly a ten percent improvement for me. The effect seemed to reduce over a few months.

What’s new

The most complete solution for depression treatment has just gotten even better.
- Completed sessions are now available directly from the courses page.
- Bug fixes and stability improvements.