Sensory Hyperstimulation for Treating Depression

Sensory Hyper-Stimulation in Treating Depressive Symptoms: A Preliminary Open-Label Study on a Novel Network-Targeted Intervention

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is associated with dysfunction across large-scale brain networks and remains insufficiently responsive to existing treatments in many patients. While most therapeutic strategies target top-down cortical modulation, bottom-up sensory interventions remain relatively underexplored. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of a multisensory hyper-stimulation protocol in reducing depressive symptoms.

Fifteen adults with a moderate-to-severe depressive episode (HAMD-17 ≥17) received nine 20-minute sessions of multisensory stimulation combining auditory, thermal, and pressure stimuli (calibrated to approximately 60% of individual pain thresholds). Outcomes were assessed at baseline, mid-intervention (session 5), and post-intervention (session 9) using the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD-17), Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), Rumination Response Scale (RRS), and Brief Resilience Scale (BRS). Within-subject changes were analyzed using Friedman tests with Bonferroni-corrected Wilcoxon post-hoc comparisons.

Inclusion Criteria:

• diagnosis of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) according to DSM-5
• age ≥18
• baseline Hamilton Depression Rating Scale score (HAMD-17) > 17.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Patients with Schizophrenia disorder and/or Active Psychosis.
• Patients with serious physical morbidity (patents with unbalanced hypertension or diabetes).
• Patients with ischemic heart disease.
• Patients with chronic pain disorder or treatment regulary with pain killers (acamol etc) opioids or medical cannabis.
• Active substance abuse (drugs or alcohol) two weeks before the study.
• Sensory processing syndrome
• Post traumatic stress disorder