Breaking Up Just Got Easier: Electric Stimulation Found to Ease the Pain of Lost Love

Recent research suggests that stimulating the brain with an electric current can help alleviate the pain of heartbreak.

The Guardian reported a recently published paper in the International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research by Zanjan University in Iran and Bielefeld University in Germany. The paper discusses how wearing a headset that stimulates the brain with a mild current can help alleviate the sadness caused by heartbreak.

The researchers divided 36 individuals with love trauma syndrome into three groups and conducted a brain electrical stimulation experiment.

Participants wore a transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) headset twice daily for 20 minutes over five days. The stimulation for brain location varied between groups.

The first group received electrical stimulation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), and the second group in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC). The third group wore the headset, which was turned off.

The prefrontal cortex that was stimulated is responsible for voluntary emotional regulation.

The results of the experiment revealed that the first and second groups had significantly reduced symptoms of love trauma syndrome and emotional pain due to heartbreak compared to the third group. Their depression and anxiety were also alleviated. The researchers explained that the effects of this lasted even a month after the experiment ended. However, they emphasized the need for a larger sample size to generalize these results.

Similarly, transcranial direct current stimulation technology has recently been introduced in clinical research. Preliminary studies by the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) also plan to test a similar headset to see its effect on mild depression.