How Uncle Sam ZAPPED Our Kids’ Brains (Stay Away From This!)
Somewhere in America tonight, a kid will go to bed with an electrical pad taped to his forehead.
And I sure hope it’s not one of your grandkids…
That pad will shoot electrical impulses into the child’s brain all night.
It’s supposed help children sit still better… or pay more attention in class. But it also could leave them with headaches, anxiety, and nightmares.
Believe it or not, this was supposed to be the next big breakthrough in ADHD treatment.
But we know now it’s a total brain-zapping dud.
It never should have seen the light of day…
The way it got approved is infuriating…
And if one of your grandkids is getting this treatment, you need to get them away from it.
Fast.
There are more than 7 million kids in America who have been diagnosed with ADHD.
Whether some of those kids should have been diagnosed in the first place is a fair question… but it’s happening.
And for lots of families, that’s when the real nightmare begins.
Their kids end up on sledgehammer drugs like Ritalin that can leave children anxious and irritable… and even cause hallucinations!
Trigeminal nerve stimulation (TNS) was supposed to solve all of that.
Basically, it uses electrical pulses – delivered through the forehead – to stimulate the trigeminal nerve, which plays a role in sleep, pain, and our ability to pay attention.
The only problems?
TNS doesn’t work. It NEVER should have been approved. And it’s putting countless kids at risk.
A new study took 150 kids with ADHD and gave half TNS and half a placebo treatment for four weeks.
TNS didn’t just fail to beat the placebo – it actually LOST to the placebo.
That’s right – it was less effective than doing NOTHING.
Of course, I shouldn’t say it did nothing… it did cause side effects. That’s something…
Kids reported headaches… sleep problems… and even nightmares.
This is like something out of a Frankenstein movie. So how did TNS ever make it past the drawing board and onto our grandkids’ foreheads?
That’s where things get crazy…
It was medically cleared by the FDA in 2019 based on a small pilot study that only included 62 kids.
And the study wasn’t even properly “blinded,” which is essential in research. You don’t want patients knowing who is getting the treatment and who isn’t.
But it’s pretty darned easy to tell if there are electrical pulses coming out of a pad or not.
So one small, poorly-designed study – that was all it took for our FDA to approve TNS and allow it to start zapping kids’ brains all across America.
You can’t make this stuff up…
If any of your grandkids are getting TNS treatment now, talk to their pediatricians about this latest research and trying something else.
And ask about supplementing with vitamin D or omega-3 fatty acids, which have both shown some encouraging, early results for improving ADHD symptoms.
To keeping our kids safe,
Ray Thatcher
Research Director, Health Sciences Institute
Sources:
- Conti, A. A., Bozhilova, N., Eraydin, I. E., Stringer, D., Johansson, L., Marhenke, R., Bilbow, A., El Masri, S., Hyde, J., Giaroli, G., Liang, H., Fiori, F., Mehta, M., Santosh, P., Carter, B., Cortese, S., & Rubia, K. (2026). External trigeminal nerve stimulation in youth with ADHD: A randomized, sham-controlled, phase 2b trial. Nature Medicine. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-025-04075-x
- StudyFinds Analysis. (2026, January 20). FDA-Cleared Brain Stimulation Device for ADHD Works No Better Than Placebo in Major Trial. StudyFinds. https://studyfinds.org/fda-cleared-brain-stimulation-for-adhd-doesnt-work/
