Alpha-Stim

Published in the Mineral Wells Index , July 11, 2008 issue:

Stemming human stress

Local neurobiologist’s China trip coincides with quake disaster

By Lacie Morrison

Mineral Wells resident, businessman and neurobiologist Dr. Daniel Kirsch used his knowledge and his work to help earthquake victims during his recent trip to China.

“I was going to China to lecture on stress. This was my course I gave on stress management,” he said.

The timing of his trip, he said, was fortuitous because he arrived within days of the 7.9 magnitude earthquake that rocked central China on May 12 and killed almost 70,000 people.

This was Kirsch’s first time to the Nanjing Chinese Medical University, though not to the country. When he learned of the earthquake, he applied his knowledge of stress management to helping others with the natural disaster.

“The earthquake was the worst tragedy I ever saw and I was happy to provide any assistance I could,” he said. “They asked me to see a group of students who came from that region.”

To help treat earthquake victims’ psychological wounds, Kirsch’s company, Electromedical Products International Inc., and the Nanjing Vish Company donated 20 devices that deal with anxiety and depression through electrical currents.

Their product, called Alpha-Stim, uses cranial electrotherapy stimulation for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Combat Stress Disorder on U.S. military veterans. According to Kirsch, he learned most of what he knows about these conditions by working with the U.S. Army, which he said “has some of the best doctors I have ever met.”

During his weeklong stay, Kirsch said he taught them how to use the equipment and the necessity to reach earthquake victims quickly.

“I can be of more help if I can train hundreds of people in what to do and they help others,” he said. “I gave them general suggestions like treating mental health quickly. Helping others is a very, very good therapeutic way to deal with the disaster.”

Kirsch said he donated equipment to the People’s Liberation Army and the Chinese government. They also donated equipment to the university’s mental health disaster relief team to take to the earthquake site.

In addition to the stress of going through a natural disaster, Kirsch said they focused on compassion fatigue in the volunteer workers.

With compassion fatigue, he said, “you’re just working too hard. The Chinese were concerned people were working too many hours – 36 hours without eating, because you have all these people [like] a lot of amputees needing immediate care. Let’s not brush it [mental health] aside until years later.”

Kirsch said he found the people to be very receptive to treating stress and mental health.

“I really like the Chinese people. I was really impressed with how open they were to help,” he said.

The response in China, he said, was opposite of what he received after Sept. 11, 2001. He described the receptiveness of the Red Cross and Federal Emergency Management Agency as “very bad response. …

“This [in China] was a complete breath of fresh air. The government was like, whatever you can do to help. They were very, very open and willing – evidently just happy for the help.”

During his lectures, he said he had excellent audience participation. “I had the best questions asked in my life,” he remarked. “They were very concerned with helping a lot of people.”

Kirsch added, “I was very happy to be able to educate members of the People’s Liberation Army and the Disaster Relief Team of psychiatrists and psychologists from the Nanjing Medical School. It seems that the idea of using survivors to help others was new to them but once I overcame their initial desire to get people out of the danger zone they were very eager to try some of my ideas to help more people quickly.”

Dr. Daniel Kirsch, far right, presents Vice Chancellor of Nanjing College of Traditional Chinese Medicine a donation of Alpha-Stim SCS for the school’s Disaster Relief Team to take to the earthquake site.

Dr. Daniel Kirsch enjoys a 23-course Chinese meal during his recent trip.

Return to Media Index