Dr Michelle Dickinson: nanotechnologist on the electrical zap promising to cure heartbreak

Love is one of the most wonderful feelings that can be experienced, however when love ends it can also be one of the most painful. New research out this week in the Journal of Psychiatric Research has found that the best way to get over a painful breakup is with a quick electrical zap to the brain!

The research looked at volunteers who had been diagnosed with love trauma syndrome (LTS). LTS is a clinically diagnosed syndrome that can occur after the end of a romantic relationship and is characterised by deep emotional pain, depression, anxiety, insomnia, mood swings, obsessive thoughts, as well as feelings of insecurity, helplessness and guilt.

The 36 volunteers were all asked to wear a headsets for 20 minutes twice a day for five days. These headsets deliver a mild electrical current to specific areas of the brain.

The volunteers were divided into three groups. One group was a control group and their headsets were never actually turned on. One group had headsets which applied an electrical current to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) part of the brain. The final group had headsets which applied an electrical current to the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) part of the brain.

Both of the brain regions targeted are known to be involved in voluntary emotion regulation.

After the 5 days of headset treatment, the researchers found that all of the volunteers who had been zapped showed a significant reduction in their LTS symptoms when compared to the control group with the volunteers who had been zapped around their dorsolateral prefrontal cortex showing the greatest reduction in symptoms.

The scientists also found that the zapped volunteers still felt better one month after their electrical treatment indicating a long term effect from this simple headset treatment.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talks.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
It'd be and once again, then our girl, Doctor Micheldikinson
has found a fascinating study for us. A science study.

Speaker 3 (00:18):
Of the Week for us this week. I love this,
Good morning, Good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
I love the story. LT is love trauma syndrome.

Speaker 3 (00:29):
It's actually a real thing, clinical thing. You know, if
you've ever fallen in love and then broken up with
that person who you thought was a person of your dreams,
you know that it's gutting and you know that you
can actually fall into a pretty dark place. Well, clinically,
you could be diagnosed with something called love trauma syndrome.
And it's you know, it's where you have deep emotion

(00:50):
or pain, depression, anxiety, insomnium, I have smooth swings, obsessive thoughts,
feeling insecure, helpless, or even feeling guilty that maybe it's
your fault that it broke up and now you're never
going to be happy and you can just spiral down
into this horrible, horrible place. But there's a cure apparently,
and I'm not I'm not convince I want this cure,
but anyway, so this study comes with a little kind

(01:11):
of catch really. So this study is in the Journal
of Psychiatric Research. It's open source, go ahead read it. It's
a lovely little paper, and it basically says, look, love
is one of the most wonderful feelings in the world,
but heartbreak when you break up a romantic relationship is
probably one of the worst and most painful feelings you'll
ever feel. And for some people, they can feel it
for a long period of time and it can really

(01:32):
affect their life. So what they did is they said,
I think if we zap people's brains, we might be
able to help them overcome this heartbreak. And so that
was their theory. That was a hypothesis. So they took
thirty six volunteers who had been diagnosed with this LTS
it obviously had a terrible time clinically depressed with their breakup,
and they said, hey, volunteers, all thirty six of you,

(01:54):
here's a headset. Can you just please wear this headset
for twenty minutes a day, twice a day for five days.
We're not going to tell you what's going to happen
with it. Just put it on and we'll control it remotely.
So these volunteers, and these headsets are set up in
different ways. So there was one group where the headset
actually was never turned on. The people didn't know that.
They just put the headsets on. It did absolutely nothing

(02:16):
for those five days. They're are control group. There was
another group where the headset was set to zap a
part of their brain called the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and
so that zap that for that period of time they
wore the headset. And there was another group of third
group for the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex. So we're both on
the prefrontal cortex. We know from previous research that this

(02:38):
is sort of involved in voluntary emotional regulation these parts
of the brain. So they set the headsets up that
they were going to electrically stimulate that part of your brain.
They say it non invasively. Basically, they're giving you an
electrical current that you shouldn't feel. People complained that it
was itchy, but that was sort of the colating that
they had. After five days, they took the headsets away
and then they followed up with these people asking how

(03:00):
they felt. Did their depression analysis and they found if
you've been zapped to the brain. You did really well.
So basically all of the ZAPP volunteers had a significant
reduction in their symptoms. They were no longer suffering from
love Trauer syndrome, and even after a month they showed
very few symptoms, whereas the poor control people who didn't

(03:21):
ask to be put of the control group was still traumatic,
they were still having huge problems, they still had this LTS.
So basically, this study shows you that if you're having
a terrible time having a heartbreak, just zep yourself to
the brain and you'll be full.

Speaker 2 (03:34):
Little zip and I'm presuming it's not it's not the
same as electroshock, theorrepy.

Speaker 3 (03:39):
No, it's transcranial direct current stimulation. It's actually called M
and so No, they're just applying a very small amount
of electricity to your brain that you shouldn't feel, but
it should stimulate the parts of the brain to just
reset everything, to go back to what should be a
normal reaction to sad things, which I feel a bit sad,
but get over it, go out and date again.

Speaker 2 (03:59):
I think i'd try a roseo first, to be honest
with you, but look good to neither working on other things.
Could this be used for other Yeah, just general forms of.

Speaker 3 (04:08):
There's a whole bunch of other things out that, you know,
even PTSD, some other things where your brain just isn't
firing back to where it should be. So they started
with what was love Troumas syndrome. You know, it's not
terrible and working now towards this another another clinical depression
sort of situation.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
Oh, really interesting. Thank you so much, Michelle, love you
to catch up with you.

Speaker 1 (04:29):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudken, listen
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