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Noninvasive neurotechnology relieves menopause-related symptoms
Women in midlife experienced decreases in menopause-related symptoms and temporal high-frequency brain electrical activity with a noninvasive technology to calibrate neural oscillations, according to research published in Menopause.
“Our study found that there were statistically significant reductions in the hot flash severity score, which incorporates both frequency and severity of symptoms, as well as decreased symptoms of insomnia and depression, and decreased amplitudes in the high-frequency range of temporal lobe brain electrical activity,” Charles H. Tegeler, MD, of Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, said in a news release.
Charles H. Tegeler
Tegeler and colleagues from the institution and Brain State Technologies conducted a pilot study assessing the effects of high-resolution, relational, resonance-based, electroencephalic mirroring (HIRREM) in 12 women with hot flashes.
During menopause, when estrogen levels fall enough to cause impaired temperature regulation, brain electrical activity pattern could be reset, thereby producing the various symptoms of menopause, Tegeler said in the release.
The women (mean age, 56 years; range, 46-69 years) underwent a median of 13 (range, 8-23) intervention sessions — algorithmic analysis of brain electrical activity and near real-time translation of brain frequencies into variable tones presented as acoustic feedback via earbuds — during an average of 9.5 days (range, 4-32).
Frequency and severity of hot flashes were noted through daily diary; self-reported inventories for sleep and depressive symptoms also were collected. At baseline and during serial sessions, the researchers measured high-frequency amplitudes (23-36 Hz) from bilateral temporal scalp recordings. The investigators were primarily concerned with hot flash severity score, sleep and depressive symptoms.
Hot flash severity scores decreased by an average of –0.97 points (range, –3 to 1; P = .015), sleep by –8.5 (range, –20 to –1; P = .022) and depression by –5.5 points (range, –32 to 8; P = .015).
For the right and left temporal high-frequency brain electrical activity, the median sum of amplitudes was 8.44 µV (range, 6.27-16.66) at baseline, with an average decrease of –2.96 µV (range, –11.05 to –0.65; P = .0005) by the last session.
“These findings are consistent with the idea that HIRREM may support reduced hot flash symptoms by allowing the brain to relax, particularly in the high-frequency range,” Tegeler said. – by Allegra Tiver
Disclosure: One researcher reports being an employee of Brain State Technologies LLC.