Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) affects more than 366 million adults in the U.S. alone, according to a 2020 study, but beyond medicating with stimulants like Adderall and Ritalin, there are few alternatives for people who suffer from the disorder. Therapy, education, and lifestyle changes are usually also advised, but those avenues can prove difficult as well.
Sydney-based Neurode has come up with a novel way to offer some relief to people with ADHD: a wearable headband that can track and treat ADHD symptoms. And you only have to wear it for 20 minutes a day.
The headband uses light electrical stimulation in the prefrontal cortex — some people feel a tingling sensation while other don’t feel anything — to balance the brain. This type of stimulation helps treat ADHD symptoms like lack of focus and can compound over time as people continue to use the product. The device uses light to monitor and record changes in brain activity.
Neurode co-founder Nathalie Gouailhardou is a neuroscientist and was diagnosed with ADHD when she was five. She told TechCrunch that stimulant treatment never really worked for her because the drug’s side effects, like insomnia and anxiety, outweighed the potential benefits.
She came up with the idea for Neurode while working with non-invasive brain imaging machines known as fNIRS (functional near-infrared spectroscopy) at medical research lab Bionics Institute. Gouailhardou said it was rare for even neuroscientists to get access to such machines, and she wondered if there was a way to get the tech out of the lab and use it to treat conditions like ADHD.
To figure out if that was even possible, she turned to Damian Sofrevski, a friend and now co-founder she used to tinker on medical devices with.
“I called up Damian and said, ‘Why is it so big and expensive?” Gouailhardou recalled. “He looked into it for a little while and he couldn’t come up with a good enough reason. That insight formed the basis of our company and tech innovation. We went on to take the big expensive brain imaging device and reduce its cost and size by 100x.”
The company was founded in 2021 and filed patents for its device that year. Neurode raised a $3.5 million pre-seed round led by Khosla Ventures with participation from PsyMed Ventures, which the company used for its own clinical trials.
The device is currently available through a private beta. Gouailhardou said the goal is to have the gadget be an FDA-approved medical device, but she doesn’t have a timeline for that application process yet.
Alex Morgan, a partner at Khosla Ventures, said the firm was interested in the company because of the team and their progress, and also because the ADHD treatment space was ripe for innovation. He told TechCrunch that stimulant drugs are great if they help people, but the industry could use a treatment younger than World War II — and one that isn’t banned in countries like Japan due to its side effects.
Morgan added that Neurode’s medical device approach also stood out. “They are taking some known things and are making them small and usable in the home,” Morgan said. “A lot of products and technology aren’t great if people can’t get access to them and use them. For all the science, if we don’t make it so people can use it, it doesn’t really help anyone.”
There have been other venture-backed startups looking to improve ADHD treatment. Some like HelloSelf and Inflow connect people to licensed therapists. Others like Numo and Sidekick are meant to help users focus on completing tasks. Cerebral is another startup in the space, but it came under fire in 2022 for over-prescribing ADHD medication.
Neurode’s approach is a bit different, and it has the potential to expand beyond just ADHD, too. Gouailhardou said Neurode’s wearable could be used to track other conditions like age-related cognitive decline and depression, and the company may explore those areas in the future.
“I feel really grateful to be building in a space that benefits me and also others,” Gouailhardou said. “It’s lucky. Obviously, having ADHD has all these downsides, but being able to be empowered to solve my own problem and see it helps other people is really rewarding.”