Reducing Sheriff’s Officers’ Symptoms of Depression Using Cranial Electrotherapy Stimulation (CES): A Control Experimental Study.
Download Article The Correctional Psychologist, 41(1):9-15, 2009
21 volunteer officers from the sheriff’s staff, 10 males and 11 females were randomly assigned to either the treatment (N = 10) or control (sham treatment, N = 11) groups and were blind to group assignments. All subjects completed 20, 20 minute sessions at 0.5 Hz and 100 µA. The officers went about their daily office tasks while using CES. Dependent measures were the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), and the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) which has both depression and anxiety scales. Significant improvements on the BSI Depression scale (P<.01) and the BDI (P<.05) scores were found. The BAI did not reveal significant results, however a Sign test (trend analysis) revealed 10 of the remaining 11 BSI subscales indicated significant downward directions of difference (P<.01) in the treatment group when compared to the control group (phobia was the exception). These findings suggest a broad trend towards reduction in the full range of clinical symptoms and may support the theory that the Alpha-Stim CES has a global modulating effect on brain dysfunctions. The authors suggest that with reduced depression, officers could have more energy for productive activities. Such a change could improve their effectiveness at work and at home. Reduction of other scales could have ramifications for officers quality of life, both on the job at home. For example, reductions in psychoticism could increase cortical control so officers would be better able to use logic-based thinking processes to control their emotions when dealing with highly intense jail situations.
