英國《每日電訊》報 焦慮癥、抑郁癥和失眠癥有了更有效的治療方法。來自美國的Alpha-Stim SCS（中文名：安思定物理治療儀，下簡稱安思定），針對焦慮、抑郁、失眠等問題可以起到有效的治療作用。
安思定治療儀，利用的是目前世界上最先進的經顱微電流刺激原理，作用于大腦邊緣系統，調節與情緒和睡眠相關的神經遞質的分泌，從而達到治療的作用。它是美國EPI公司歷時30年的時間所研發的。
安思定采用的經顱微電流刺療法在最開始 5年服務于美國的軍隊的退伍士兵。一些老兵曾經表示：“這種治療方法不僅可以讓我的不良情緒得到舒緩，使用的同時，睡眠也變好了�！备鶕@些老兵的使用情況，科學家和精神科醫生經過反復的臨床實踐，針對于焦慮、抑郁、失眠的個人用戶的使用進行的專項研究和完善，并且將這種新的療法成功的運用在個人用戶的焦慮、抑郁和失眠的治療上。
一名有多年焦慮癥困擾的患者表示：“我患有焦慮癥，以前都是通過藥物治療去控制癥狀。但是一些突然的事情仍然會使得我的癥狀復發。我試了好多藥物治療的方法，但是都沒有很穩定的效果。使用安思定治療了一個療程，我發現它能夠很好地改善我的狀況。我的急躁易怒的現象減少了，心情比以前平穩了，情緒也不像以前那樣控制不住了。”
I am sitting at home with two electrodes attached to my earlobes. Electric currents are passing into my brain and down my spinal column. I feel like Frankenstein’s monster.
To the casual observer, it might appear that I am being subjected to torture. In fact, I am attempting to quell my predisposition to anxiety, which I have managed to elevate beyond the realms of mere psychological symptom into a complete lifestyle. Electricity, it seems, could be the answer – the new Valium, if you will.
The machine is called Alpha-Stim SCS. It is a small device with two wires that clip on to your ears. It uses “cranial electrotherapy stimulation” – 50-100 microamps of electricity (a microamp is a millionth of an amp) – to increase alpha brain waves. These waves occur at the frequency of about 8-12 cycles per second, or hertz, compared with the “normal”, or beta, state of 13-25 hertz, which is the state in which most of us spend our working days. Alpha waves induce relaxed, yet alert, states that, it is claimed, calm the central nervous system.
Twelve million people around the world have used Alpha-Stim over the past 20 years. The American military have used it for five years. Its applications are astonishingly wide. It has been found to be effective in the treatment of anxiety, stress and depression, addictions, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and insomnia.
“Money,” says Dr Daniel Kirsch, its American inventor, on the phone from Texas. “I started the company in 1981 with $25,000. I don't have the capacity of huge pharmaceuticals to market this product to every doctor in the world. But we have more research papers on Alpha-Stim than any therapeutic device in the world. This is what happens when a scientist rather than a businessman starts a company.”
What happens when you switch the machine on, however, is much less predictable. The accompanying leaflet warns that you may feel “heavy, groggy, lightheaded or nauseous”. This can last, it says, from five minutes to the entire duration of the 20- or 60-minute session.
I switch it on. Immediately, there is a prickly sensation in my earlobes, as if, every second or so, a teasel is brushed against them. Moments later, giddiness takes over at a level precisely equivalent to three cocktails on an empty stomach. The dizziness persists for the full 20 minutes. Afterwards, I don’t feel relaxed, yet alert. I feel drowsy.
“These effects won’t last,” promises Dr Kirsch. I don’t believe him.
Later that day, however, I go to the hospital for some unrelated tests. Normally such a scenario would unleash hypochondria. But none of the physical symptoms of anxiety surface – no tense muscles or thumping heart. My mind still taunts me in the waiting room, though. I plan my funeral.
The next day, I take Dr Kirsch’s advice and try a 60-minute session. This time, the lightheadedness is at a one-cocktail level, but it comes with a hefty dose of nausea. This may be the result of the Prosecco I’d quaffed the previous evening
.
When hung-over, I normally spend the day alternating between paranoia and sweating. But, once again, the anxiety never materialises.
“The effects aren’t just instant but also cumulative,” explains Dr Kirsch. Indeed, the accompanying literature recommends regular treatments for several weeks.
The following day, there is almost no dizziness, no nausea and, despite stress-inducing negotiations at work, I am about half as anxious and twice as alert as usual. It seems to be helping. But does it really work on all the aforementioned conditions?
I phone Dr Bob Lister, chairman of the Institute of Brain Chemistry and Human Nutrition at London Metropolitan University. He specialises in fibromyalgia, the debilitating and notoriously tricky-to-treat pain condition.
“I’m always sceptical about revolutionary new treatments for this, that and the other,” he says. “But there have been about 200 papers supporting this. When I gave the Alpha-Stim to members of my local fibromyalgia group, within a few days reports were coming back of it decreasing not just pain but other
symptoms associated with the condition, such as anxiety and insomnia. In the end, 80 per cent found it beneficial. One woman had ordered a wheelchair because she couldn’t walk more than a few steps without being in crippling pain and, after using the device, she cancelled the chair.“
After learning about the US Army’s use of Alpha-Stim, particularly for PTSD, Dr Lister gave a presentation about the device at Headley Court, the British Armed Forces rehabilitation centre in Surrey. “As a result,” says Dr Lister, “they bought a dozen Alpha-Stim machines, and they now want another dozen because they’ve found them so effective.”
Dr Kirsch explains: “One of the reasons the military like this product is that many of the psychopharmacological approaches to anxiety have side effects that impair alertness.”
Dr Lesley Parkinson, a clinical psychologist, was one of the first clinicians to use it in Britain.
“I’ve looked at the EEG scans [which record electrical activity in the brain] on patients before and after using the machine, and you can clearly see that it positively affects brain waves. I’ve found it so beneficial that now, if someone comes to me with generalised anxiety disorder, I would suggest they try Alpha-Stim before any medication,” she says.
Dr Parkinson does, however, recognise its limitations. “If, for example, someone had just experienced a deeply traumatic event, I wouldn’t recommend it. In those instances, it could never replace talking therapies.”
Indeed, the physiological calm that the device induces ameliorates rather than removes anxious thoughts. Those who fear life are, according to Bertrand Russell, already three parts dead. But after a week on Alpha-Stim, I appear to be at least two parts alive.
（每日電訊報）
