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Transcranial direct current stimulation (TDCS) for severe drug resistent major depression: A ten days treatment protocol

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 April 2020

E. Scelzo ,
R. Ferrucci ,
M. Bortolomasi ,
M. Giacopuzzi  and
A. Priori
E. Scelzo
Affiliation:
Centro Clinico per la Neurostimolazione, le Neurotecnologie ed i Disordini del Movimento, Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Verona, Italy
R. Ferrucci
Affiliation:
Centro Clinico per la Neurostimolazione, le Neurotecnologie ed i Disordini del Movimento, Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Verona, Italy Università Degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy
M. Bortolomasi
Affiliation:
Unità Operativa di Psichiatria, Ospedale Villa Santa Chiara, Verona, Italy
M. Giacopuzzi
Affiliation:
Unità Operativa di Psichiatria, Ospedale Villa Santa Chiara, Verona, Italy
A. Priori
Affiliation:
Centro Clinico per la Neurostimolazione, le Neurotecnologie ed i Disordini del Movimento, Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Verona, Italy Università Degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy

Abstract

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Introduction

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive and safe neuromodulation technique that induces prolonged excitability changes of the human cerebral cortex. We have shown that patients with severe major depression treated with tDCS twice a day for 5 days improve by some 30% their depressive symptoms.

Objectives

To optimize the tDCS protocol for the treatment of major depression.

Aims

To assess the therapeutic efficacy in severe drug resistant major depression of tDCS over the dorso-lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPC) twice a day for ten days.

Methods

We studied 15 hospitalized patients aged 37–68 years, with severe major depression. Mood was evaluated using the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and Visual Analogue Scales (VAS). tDCS was delivered over the DLPC (anodal electrode was placed on F3 and cathodal electrode on F4) at the intensity of 2mA, for 20 minutes, twice a day for 10 days. Depression scales were administered at baseline and after the last tDCS session on day 10. Drug treatments were maintained unchanged since six weeks before the tDCS study.

Results

After ten days of tDCS the BDI improved by about 40% [(Mean ± SEM) Before: 29.1 ± 3.5; After: 19.4 ± 3.7, p < 0.01]. The feeling of happyness and sadness as evaluated by VAS improved after tDCS (happiness p < 0.01; Sadness p < 0.05).

Conclusions

The improvement reported by patients after ten-days tDCS protocol is greater than that we previously reported after the five-days tDCS protocol. Hence, our preliminary findings suggest that ten-days tDCS protocol should be preferred to the five-days protocol for major depression.

Type
P02-558
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 26 , Issue S2: Abstracts of the 19th European Congress of Psychiatry , March 2011 , pp. 1154
Copyright
Copyright © European Psychiatric Association 2011
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