“School of Cognitive Sciences”
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| Paper IPM / Cognitive Sciences / 18124 |
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Introduction: Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been increasingly used in neuropsychiatric disorders, especially depression, in the last decade. Despite promising results, the clinical efficacy of tDCS is still under debate and researchers try to maximize efficacy by developing optimized/individualized protocols. 4Ã1 montages tDCS is recently proposed for a more focal stimulation of targeted regions. In this registered randomized clinical trial, we optimized a stimulation protocol for increasing and decreasing activity in the left and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.
Methods: Sixty patients with major depression were recruited and randomly assigned to three groups: optimized multichannel protocol (N=20), conventional tDCS (N=20), and sham (N=20). Each patient received 30 sessions of either active or sham tDCS. The multichannel tDCS used seven small electrodes (11 mm in diameter) delivering a 2 mA current, with a maximum total injected current of 4.0 mA. In the conventional tDCS (2 mA intensity, electrode size of 35 cm2) and sham tDCS, anodal and cathodal electrodes were placed over the left and right DLPFC, respectively. Symptom severity was assessed using the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale and the Beck Depression Inventory before treatment, during sessions 10, 20, and 30, and at 1 and 3 months post-intervention. Working memory and attention bias were evaluated before and after treatment, and functional brain connectivity was measured using resting EEG recordings..
Results: Compared to the sham group, both tDCS groups significantly reduced depressive symptoms up to 3 months follow-up. The effects were significantly larger for the multichannel protocol compared to the conventional protocol. Optimized multichannel tDCS was more effective in improving working memory in patients.
Conclusion: Modulation of the prefrontal cortex with model-driven multichannel tDCS ameliorates depression symptoms, with beneficial cognitive effects. The multichannel tDCS protocol was more therapeutically effective than the conventional protocol.
Research Category and Technology and Methods
Clinical Research: 9. Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS)
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