Pathway

Restore programme

Restore is our pathway in Marylebone, London for people living below their own baseline with a diagnosed condition, who have already worked their way through the treatments that were supposed to help.

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Consultation room at the Naya clinic, UNTIL Marylebone

The short answer

What the Restore programme is

Restore is for people who are functioning below where they used to be, with a diagnosis already in place. Depression that has not responded to two or more antidepressants. Chronic pain. Fatigue that no amount of rest touches. You have usually tried several things by the time you read this.

The programme starts by measuring rather than by treating. We take your baseline, we find the stimulation target your own physiology responds to, and only then do we set a course length. The same measures are repeated during the course, so whether it is working becomes a question with an answer.

We will also tell you when the evidence for your condition is thin. Stimulation has a large published evidence base in treatment-resistant depression and a much smaller one in fatigue, pain and cognition. Your clinician will say which of those two positions your own condition sits in before you commit to anything.

Areas treated

Why the pathway is built this way

Your programme length is set after your assessment, not quoted before it
A measured baseline, so progress is checked against your own numbers rather than your recall
The stimulation target is chosen by testing your response, not by a fixed scalp coordinate
Non-invasive and drug-free, alongside rather than instead of the care you already have
Talking therapy and trauma-informed support can run in parallel where that helps
An honest answer about the strength of the evidence for your specific condition

Patient journey

What a Restore programme involves

Consultation & preparation

Bring your diagnosis, your current medication list and a note of what has already been tried, including doses and roughly when. That history shapes the programme more than anything else you tell us. Eat and drink as normal and keep taking your usual medication unless your clinician has said otherwise. Avoid alcohol the night before a session, since it lowers the seizure threshold. Tell us about any metal in your head, any implanted cardiac device and any history of seizure before your first appointment rather than on the day.

During treatment

A free consultation, and a straight answer

Fifteen minutes with a clinician about your diagnosis, what has already been tried and what you want back. If stimulation is not appropriate for you, they will say so in that conversation rather than book you an assessment. There is no obligation either way.

Your baseline, measured

Before treatment starts we take a NayaScore assessment: grip strength, continuous heart rate variability from a wearable ring, and cognitive testing across twelve domains. We also measure your motor threshold, which sets your individual dose as a percentage of it. The NayaScore is a measurement tool rather than a diagnostic test, and is read alongside clinical judgement.

Finding your target

Candidate sites over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex are tested and we watch how your heart responds to each. A brief slowing of heart rate indicates that the network linking the front of the brain to the vagus nerve has engaged. The site producing the clearest response is the one treated.

What the evidence supports

The largest evidence base is in treatment-resistant depression, where NICE has issued interventional procedures guidance. Professor Alexander Sack, who advises the clinic, told The Telegraph in March 2026 that meta-analyses there typically report response rates of around 50 to 60 per cent and remission of roughly 30 to 40 per cent, against response of roughly 40 to 60 per cent and remission of about 25 to 35 per cent for first-line antidepressants. Evidence in fatigue, pain and cognition is earlier and smaller.

One patient account, on the record

Etienne Balland wrote about his own treatment in The Telegraph on 16 March 2026. He had chronic fatigue syndrome from March 2022 and spent a year bed-bound with his parents as his carers. His first course was 30 sessions of 15 to 20 minutes, sometimes two or three in a day. He noticed change within two weeks and says the turning point came in week three. He relapsed in June 2025, had a second course, and says he feels 90 per cent back to normal. He is now training as a practitioner. This is one person, in his own words, and not a typical outcome.

Reassessment, then a decision

The same measures are repeated during your course. Some people finish and need nothing further. Others agree top-up sessions. Relapse happens, and a second course is a normal part of the picture rather than a failure of the first. If the numbers are not moving, we will tell you and stop.

Aftercare

You can drive, work and exercise straight after a session. Mild scalp tenderness or a dull headache is common early in a course and usually settles within a couple of hours; ordinary painkillers are fine. Tell your clinician if a headache is severe or persistent, and contact the clinic immediately if you experience any loss of consciousness or seizure-like episode. Your NayaScore is repeated during the course, and your baseline is kept so that a later course starts from your real history rather than from memory.

Written and medically reviewed byNaya, Precision neuromodulation clinic · NICE: guideline NG206, myalgic encephalomyelitis (or encephalopathy) and chronic fatigue syndrome, diagnosis and management.

FAQ

Restore questions

Who is the Restore programme for?

People functioning below their own baseline who already have a diagnosis, most often treatment-resistant depression, chronic pain, fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue. Most have tried several treatments first. Your clinician decides at the free consultation whether stimulation is appropriate for your condition, and will tell you plainly when it is not.

How long is a Restore programme?

It depends on the condition and on how you respond, so the number comes after your assessment rather than before it. Courses here have run from five sessions to thirty. Sessions are delivered over weeks rather than in one visit, because the change we are aiming for depends on repetition.

I have already tried a lot of things. Why would this be different?

It might not be, and we would rather say that now. What differs in method is that your dose is set from your own motor threshold, your target is chosen by measuring your response, and the same measures are repeated during the course. That means an early answer rather than a hopeful one.

What does the evidence show for my condition?

That varies sharply by condition, and your clinician will be specific. Treatment-resistant depression has the largest published evidence base and NICE interventional procedures guidance. Chronic pain, fatigue and cognitive symptoms have earlier and smaller evidence. We will tell you which of those two positions applies to you.

What happens if I relapse afterwards?

Relapse is part of the picture for many long-term conditions and a second course is a normal response to it, not a sign the first one failed. Your baseline and your results are kept, so a later course starts from your real history. Etienne Balland describes exactly that sequence.

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Naya • 1 Orchard Street, London W1H 6HJ

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