“Microamperage Electrical Stimulation as an Adjunct in Neurotherapy” by Paul G. Swingle, Ph.D., R. Psych. (Private Practice)

We discovered that CES helps with retention of learned material quite by accident.  In our Practice many clients receive CES units to help with depression, sleep problems, anxiety and addictions.  We started to hear from clients that they felt that they were able to remember things they had read more readily when treating themselves with the CES unit.  They assumption that we made was that the improved retention was a secondary effect of the CES because of the person being more relaxed.  Since the clients who received the CES units would be those who had Theta deficiencies in the back of the brain we thought that anxious clients would be those who benefited from using CES while studying.  However, we also started getting reports from clients that the CES treatments had an invigorating effect and when used mid-afternoon would minimize the typical afternoon slump in attention that many people experience.  I treated myself with the CES after lunch time and did feel that I was more alert and attentive.

We decided to test the effects of CES on learning with a non-clinical population.    The first study (Swingle and Swingle, 200x) looked at vocabulary learning with a young woman who was learning a second language.  The CES was .5 Hz delivered on the earlobe during study sessions.  All sessions were 35 minutes in length and the task was to memorize words from a list.  The client was asked to list all the words she recalled two days after the memorization session.  Without the CES the young woman was able to list 26% of the words whereas with the CES she was able to list 41% which seemed to be a huge benefit to learning the material.

The second study (Swingle and Swingle, 2XXX) looked at the effects of CES on learning vocabulary with a group of ESL (English as a Second Language) students.  Three different conditions were studied:  First a group of students who had a standard three hour classroom study (Group 1); second, a group of students who had 1.5 hours of individual study with CES on the earlobes (Group 2); third, a group of students who had 1.5 hours of individual study with CES presented at location P6 (Group 3).  The stimulation frequency was 100Hz and was continuous during the study period.  The amount learned was measured in two ways.  First, the students were asked to define the word (i.e., give the word meaning) and second, they were asked to use the word in a sentence.  The percentage of correct definitions was 31.5%, 78.3%, and 81.0% for Group 1, Group 2 and Group 3, respectively.  The percentage of words used correctly in a sentence was 35.7%, 75.0%, and 83.3% for groups 1, 2, and 3, respectively.  Thus, the data indicate that CES is a very effective aid to learning and further that the stimulation is at least as effective when applied to the acupuncture point Pericardium 6 as when presented at the more conventional earlobe site.

Clinical reports
One published clinical study reported on the effectiveness of CES in a case of post-traumatic amnesia, in which a 21 year old male who was comatose for weeks following a motorcycle accident recovered much of his tested memory recall functions following three weeks of one hour daily CES treatments. 

Another patient, reported in the same article, was a 58 year old orthopedic surgeon who suffered a closed head injury in a motor vehicle accident.  He was diagnosed with diencephalic amnesia secondary to trauma.  He had difficulty distinguishing between fantasy and reality, and experienced overwhelming anxiety during periods of disorientation.  His amnesia improved 28% on immediate recall and 39% on delayed recall after only one week of daily CES treatments.  These changes were accompanied by several other behavioral improvements, such as better acceptance and compliance with his treatment program, longer periods of lucidity, and more interaction with other patients and staff on the ward .