# Electricity in brain - where can I get it?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electricity-in-brain-where-can-i-get-it/560716>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 15, 2010, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electricity-in-brain-where-can-i-get-it/560716 "2010-11-15T08:27:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![komolono](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/komolono/32/532_2.png) [@komolono](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/komolono)\
**Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electricity-in-brain-where-can-i-get-it/560716/1 "2010-11-15T08:27:04Z")

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I’ve been drinking and lying in my bed for a week now. And also done some bad things. Plus this drinking must be devastating to my health. I think I could substitute my bad habits by this means

> **[This Is Your Brain on Electricity](https://www.wired.com/2001/08/this-is-your-brain-on-electricity/)**
>
> A new round of clinical trials begins for pacemaker-like devices that send electrical impulses to regulate brain activity. Such implants could be effective in controlling chronic pain, depression, epilepsy and Parkinson's. By Noah Shachtman.

Can anyone say if this is an answer to my problem? I regard this a non-medical question - is the world changing with this kind of devices?

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**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\
**Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electricity-in-brain-where-can-i-get-it/560716/2 "2010-11-15T13:55:07Z")

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You could fit yourself out with an FDA approved [Cyberonics](http://www.cyberonics.com/en/) brand [Vagus nerve stimulation](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vagus_nerve_stimulation)kit for just a few tens of thousands of dollars.

I have not heard wonderful things about the efficacy of the device.

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**Author:** ![dzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f9b8f/32.png) [@dzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dzero)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electricity-in-brain-where-can-i-get-it/560716/3 "2010-11-16T00:16:22Z")

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I would recommend [Transcranial Magnetic stimulation (TMS)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcranial_magnetic_stimulation)or [Magnetic Seizure Therapy (MST)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_seizure_therapy).

You can get home TMS kits for a few hundred dollars although I don’t know if they’re still sold and if so if they are any good.

For a long time TMS was purely experimental but I think it was FDA approved this or last year for treatment resistant depression. MST, being an alternative electroshock, I don’t think is as widely available and it certainly wouldn’t be the first thing a shrink would recommend you try.

Have you ever seem someone to get a diagnosis? Sometimes this doesn’t really help except to give you a rubric under which you can categorize all of your oddities, idiosyncrasies and peccadilloes. But most of the time it can at least give you an idea of what you need in terms of treatment.

You don’t have to be completely debilitated to try to get some help you know.

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**Author:** ![FluffyBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecb155/32.png) [@FluffyBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FluffyBob)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electricity-in-brain-where-can-i-get-it/560716/4 "2010-11-16T15:08:31Z")

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You know this and you do not consider this a medical question, but I have to say it, having seen all to well the effects. If you have the slightest inclination you are depressed, see your doctor.

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**Author:** ![komolono](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/komolono/32/532_2.png) [@komolono](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/komolono)\
**Post date:** [November 18, 2010, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electricity-in-brain-where-can-i-get-it/560716/5 "2010-11-18T07:08:32Z")

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I had a brief exchange of emails over a year ago with  
Wang, Zhong Lin  
[http://www.nanoscience.gatech.edu/zlwang/](http://www.nanoscience.gatech.edu/zlwang/)  
He said that sending nanoscale generators in one’s brains is one of the goals in their studies. Does anyone have more detailed information about this?