BETHESDA, Md., Nov. 4 (UPI) -- Researchers in a small study at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases found a method of noninvasive brain stimulation helped people eat less and lose weight.
Transcranial direct current stimulation, or tDCS, is a form neurostimulation that uses a constant, low current to stimulate a specific part of the brain using electrodes on the scalp. The treatment has been shown to help people improve cognitive performance depending on the area of the brain doctors target.
"Obesity is associated with decreased activity in the prefrontal cortex," researchers wrote in the study. "This proof of concept study suggested, for the first time, the potential application of anodal tDCS to facilitate weight loss."
Researchers worked with nine obese but otherwise healthy men and women with a mean age of 42 in a double-blind, randomized trial with some participants receiving actual tDCS and others given a placebo imitating the treatment. The treatment was aimed at brain regions that control behavior and reward.
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During two separate eight-week sessions, participants ate a weight-maintaining diet for five days, followed by three days during which participants were given either active or sham tDCS and allowed to eat and drink as much as they wanted from vending machines.
Four people in the study who received sham treatment during both sessions ate the same number of calories on each day from the machines. The other five were given a sham treatment during the first session and an active tDCS treatment during the second, and ate 700 fewer calories and lost an average of 0.8 pounds after receiving the real thing.
The researchers will next test two separate groups that receive only active tDCS or sham treatments to compare results. More studies will also need to be done to determine the safety and longer term efficacy of the treatment, according to a press release.
The study is published in the journal Obesity.
