History of CES

CES began in the former Soviet Union during the 1950s, its primary focus being the treatment of sleep disorders, hence its initial designation as "electro-sleep." Treatment of insomnia was soon overshadowed, however, by psychiatric application for depression and anxiety. Since then, it has been referred to by many other names, the most popular being "transcranial electrotherapy" (TCET) and "neuroelectric therapy" (NET).

East European nations soon picked up CES as a treatment modality, and its use spread worldwide. By the late 1960s, animal studies of CES had begun in the United States at the University of Tennessee and what is now the University of Wisconsin Medical School. These were soon followed by human clinical trials at the University of Texas Medical School in San Antonio and the University of Wisconsin Medical School. More studies followed.

There currently exist more than 1,000 articles on CES therapy many of which are listed in four reviews put out by the Foreign Service Bulletin of the United States Library of Congress. This is in addition to the wealth of physiological and bio-engineering data on electro-sleep and electro-anesthesia, including 18 experimental animal studies. Human research studies on CES currently number more than 100. Its efficacy has been clinically confirmed through 28 established psychometric tests, computerized EEGs and topographical brain-mapping. Meta-analyses yielding positive results from the use of CES have been conducted at the University of Tulsa and at the Harvard University School of Public Health. The most extensive work on CES is presently being conducted at the Pavlov Institute in St. Petersburg, Russia.