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I’d love to see a double blind study done on this device and others like it, I figure maybe there’s a placebo effect, or perhaps many of the people sat still for half an hour which allowed them “time off” mentally, as if meditating. I don’t trust these types of devices without double blind studies being performed as otherwise there may be a confounding factor. This doesn’t sound like such a study.
I'm not sure if it's the same study or not but here they seem tobgave compared it with sham treatment: https://neuronewsinternational.com/flow-announces-pivotal-tr...

Where are you seeing that the trial mentioned in the article isn't double blind?

Placebo is very strong in all depression studies, also because most depressions disappear or at least improve on their own - patients are most likely to seek help closer to the random/periodic bottom, than to the top. This device may be similar to transcranial magnetic stimulation, or even the good old, scary, but reliable electroshocks. I do wonder if they are able to run enough current through the brain to cause any effect.
Placebo in depression is strong because placebo effect involves the opioid system, particularly the mu receptor. That receptor is known to have antidepressant effects when stimulated.

If you mean ECT by electroshocks, then yes, it's reliable but poorly tolerated with possible memory loss and cognitive impairment. It's still unknown how it works. TMS is very different from tDCS as the power in the brain is very different.

I wonder whether this 30-min per day of wearing the headset, had more of meditation effect rather than actual electric interference. Would love to see placebo effect study with a mock headset.
Why not just meditate? There's clear double blind studies, and it is free. I guess it can't be as monetized.
"A qualitative approach was employed, involving in-depth semi-structured interviews. Thematic and content analyses were applied. Out of a sample of 47 participants using Flow, 18 participants consented to be interviewed."

https://www.scirp.org/journal/paperinformation?paperid=12882...

I wonder how this compares to taking cold showers, which I believe studies have shown can be effective, but I don’t know the rate at which it can be effective.
I have no information on the effectiveness of cold showers and depression but when I was clinically depressed I would not have had the will and energy to take a cold shower.

Physical exercise is also reported to alleviate or reduce depression symptoms but when depression hits, physical exercise gets almost impossible to self initiate. That a problem with "active"¹ depression treatment.

1- In opposition to passive treatments like drugs or devices, not in opposition with inactive or placebo

>physical exercise gets almost impossible to self initiate.

This. The only solution I found is to force yourself to "just do it" first thing you get out of bed, no matter how much you feel mentally you can't do it.

No checking phone, no opening the laptop, no making coffee, no eating breakfast, no staring out the window. Once you remove or block any other potential distraction, there's only one thing left you can do to get on with your day, which is to grab those dumbbells sitting on the yoga mat and get at it.

It has to be my number one priority when I wake up, otherwise it falls down the list of responsibilities over the day and then never gets done.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=tdcs+depression&filter...

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=cold+shower+depression...

Cold showers are basically no incremental cost, so why go research them? :(
citation needed.