THE TIMES Could this £3,000 hi-tech ‘helmet’ help my ADHD? →
’m lying on a bed with a small helmetlike contraption on the left side of my head that is attached to a monitor. My thumb twitches involuntarily, then I feel tapping, like someone playing a xylophone very gently on my head. I’m at a private clinic in Mayfair, central London, because I have been diagnosed with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) in midlife and I want to know if this brain-stimulating machine — called Exomind, and which costs an eye-watering £500 for a 25-minute session — might be able to help me.
My ADHD diagnosis came at the age of 49 in 2022, after a 16-month wait to see an NHS psychiatrist. Months before, my GP had gently suggested that I might have the condition. It felt like coming home as she spoke — so many things suddenly made sense. My insomnia, my lack of application, my procrastination and tardiness (despite my best intentions), versus sporadic hyperfocus, my tendency to become overstimulated. I remember the feeling of relief, when I hit 30, that I never had to go to a nightclub again was profound (music and lights mixed with the noise of the crowd are overwhelming). Even at large work dinners, I overcompensate by talking too much and oversharing and having two glasses too many. All I want to do is get home and read my book.
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When I mention my diagnosis people often tell me “I’m a bit ADHD too”. But it’s not a lifestyle choice, nor is it about leaving the milk out or forgetting your phone. Have you impulsively relocated twice to the other side of the world, I want to ask them, or moved house multiple times to gain some sort of control, only to find that’s not the answer?
The psychiatrist prescribed Elvanse — lisdexamfetamine dimesylate, an amphetamine that, counterintuitively, can be helpful for calming the symptoms of ADHD. Hurrah, I thought, the solution is here, in a pill. Except that the medication had the opposite effect, as it can do for some people — the effect that speed would normally be expected to have.
I was jangly, sleep-deprived and tearful, and when a good friend gently suggested I stop taking it I cried with relief. I spoke to my GP, who advised gradually lowering the dose, but even going down to the minimum didn’t help, so I gave up with it. I was hugely disappointed — to quote the Verve, the drugs didn’t work, they just made it mind-bendingly worse — and felt like a failure. But then, in the course of my work as a beauty journalist, I heard about this treatment called Exomind, which Serena Williams has used to improve wellbeing and Gwyneth Paltrow has tried to help with perimenopausal brain fog and anxiety.
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The machine works by using electromagnetic pulses to stimulate the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex — a region in the brain involved in emotional regulation, decision-making and cognitive function. The stimulation triggers the release of key neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine, the natural brain chemicals that help to stabilise mood. Transcranial magnetic stimulation treatment has been used for more than 40 years to treat mental health issues and Exomind has been licensed by the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) since 2008 to treat depression. In the UK it is approved for depression, OCD and binge eating. It is not yet licensed for use in ADHD, although the manufacturers are hoping for FDA approval. But when I heard the list of symptoms that it helped —the company’s own research found that after six 24-and-a-half-minute treatments, 90 per cent of patients reported mental wellbeing improvements while 71 per cent reported improved sleep — I wondered if it might be able to help me.
And that’s how I found myself attached to this expensive machine, among the Botox needles and lasers at Dr Preema Vig’s London Clinic in Mayfair. A GP and specialist in aesthetic medicine, Vig was happy to let me try the treatment “off label”. Three years ago she was violently mugged, the effects of which have been long-lasting (she still has titanium plates in her skull). It made her re-evaluate the importance of mental health, she says — and willing to invest in this piece of kit. “I realised that aesthetics are great but I wanted to look after the whole patient,” she says. “We’ve seen a lot of interest in Exomind, which can be life-changing.”
Another doctor, the plastic surgeon and cosmetic specialist Sherina Balaratnam, uses it at her clinic, S-Thetics, in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire. “Exomind gently stimulates the prefrontal dorsolateral cortex, which causes the neurons to form new neuronal connections — and neurons that wire together, fire together,” she says. The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is the executive centre of the brain that makes decisions and helps us to become more performance-focused and improves emotional wellbeing, she explains. Many of her patients who have used Exomind have done so for ADHD, she says, and “they feel more in control of themselves”.
