Effectiveness of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation on Depression Severity and Automatic Thoughts Reduction in Depressed Women

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Psychology, Iranians University an e-Institute of Higher Education, Tehran, Iran,

2 Department of Psychology, Shahed University, Tehran, Iran

3 Department of Psychology,Karaj Branch, Islamic Azad university, Karaj, Iran

4 Department of Complementary and Chinese Medicine, School of Persian and Complementary Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran

Abstract

Background: Depression is a common disorder that is often associated with other mental and physical disorders. One of the innovative approaches applied in depressed patients is Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS).

Objectives: The study aimed to determine the effectiveness of transcranial direct electrical stimulations on reducing the severity of depression and negative automatic thoughts.

Methods: A quasi-experimental study wasconducted on 24 depressed women between 2015 and 2016 who were randomized via clinical interview in Tehran, district 2.The patients’ age range was from 20 to 55 years old.The process was done through the convenience sampling which was randomly assigned into test (n = 12) and control (n = 12) groups.
The applied assessment tool in the clinical interview was Beck Depression Inventory (BDI- Form 21) and Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire (ATQ) respectively. All the patients underwent15-20 minutes anodal stimulation of T3 region, and Kathodal stimulation of FD1 with a current of 2-mAintensity along with a Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS). The Data were analyzed using the independent t-test analysis.

Results: The results showed that there was a significant difference between tdcs and control groups in the rates of depression (P<0.05). There wasalso a significant differencebetween tdcs and control groups in terms of belief and frequency of automatic thoughts(P<0.05).

Conclusion: According to the results, it seems that Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation could reduce the severity of depression. Therefore, psychologists and psychotherapistscan use it as a method of intervention used to improve symptoms in patients with depression.

Keywords

Open Access Policy: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

References

1. Fink M. Convulsive therapy: a review of the first 55 years.J Affective Disord. 2001;63(1):1-15.
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0165-0327(00)00367-0
PMid:11246075
 
2. Kessler RC, Berglund P, Demler O, Jin R, Merikangas KR, Walters EL. Lifetime prevalence and ago-of-onset distributions of DSM-IV disorders in the National Comorbidity Survery Replication. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2005;62(6):593-602.
https://doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.62.6.617
https://doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.62.6.593
PMid:15939837
 
3. Sadeghi K, Khazaie H. The comparison of efficacy pharmacotherapy and group cognitive therapy in dimensions of temperament and character of patients with major depression disorder. J Kermanshah Univ Med Sci. 2013; 17(4):230-6. [Persian]
 
4. Melyani M, Allahyari AA, Falah PA, Ashtiani AF, Tavoli A. Mindfulness based cognitive therapy versus cognitive behavioral therapy in cognitive reactivity and self-compassion in females with recurrent depression with residual symptoms. J Psychol. 2015;18(4):393-407.
 
5. Yousefi Z, Bahrami F, Mehrabi HA. Rumination: beginning and continuous of depression. J Behave Sci. 2008;2(1):67-73.
 
6. Fregni F, Baggio PS, Nitsche MA, Marcolin MA, Rigonatti SP, Pascual-Leone A. Treatment of major depression with transcranial direct current stimulation. Bipolar Disord. 2006; 8(2):203-4.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1399-5618.2006.00291.x
PMid:16542193
 
7. Brunoni A, Ferrucci R, Bortolomasi M, VergariM, Tadini L, Boggio P, et al. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in unipolar vs. Bipolar depressive disorder. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biolo Psychatry. 2011;35(1):96-101.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pnpbp.2010.09.010
PMid:20854868
 
8. Sadock BJ, Sadock VA, Kaplan HI. Kaplan and Sadock's concise textbook of child and adolescent psychiatry. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2009.
 
9. Nitsche MA, Baggio PS, Fergni F, Pascual-Leone A. Treatment of depression with Transcranial direct current stimulation(tDCS): a review. Eper Neurol. 2009;216(1):9-14.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.expneurol.2009.03.038
PMid:19348793
 
10. Baggio PS, Bermpohl F, Vesgara AO, Muniz AL, Nahas FH, Leme PB, et al. Go-no-go task performance improvement after anodal transcranial DC stimulation of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cote in major depression. J Affect Disord. 2007;101(1):91-8.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2006.10.026
PMid:17166593
 
11. Arul-Anandam AP, Loo C. Transcranial direct current stimulation: a new tool for the treatment of depression? J Affect Disord. 2009;117(3):137-45.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2009.01.016
PMid:19201483
 
12. Rigonatti SP, Baggio PS, Myczkowski ML, Otta E, Fiquer JT, Ribeiro RB, et al. Transcranial direct stimulation and fluoxetine for the treatment of depression. Eur Psychiatry. 2008; 23(1):74-6.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eurpsy.2007.09.006
PMid:18023968
 
13. Hadley D, Anderson BS, Borckardt JJ, Arana A, Li X, Nahas Z, et al. Safety, tolerability, and effectiveness of high doses of adjunctive daily left prefrontal repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation for treatment-resistant depression in a clinical setting. J ECT. 2011;27(1)18-25.
https://doi.org/10.1097/YCT.0b013e3181ce1a8c
PMid:21343710
 
14. Kalu U, Sexton C, Loo C, Ebmeier K. Transcranial direct current stimulation in the treatment of major depression: a meta- analysis. Psychol Med. 2012;42(9):1791-800.
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291711003059
PMid:22236735
 
15. Abdolmanafi A, Besharat MA. Mediatory role of anger rumination in the relationship between anger and depressionamong patients with external locous of control. J Behave Sci. 2013;7(2):173-80. [Persian]
 
16. Kaviani H, Javaheri F, Hatami N. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) reduces depression and anxiety induced by real stressful setting in non-clinical population. Int J Psychol Psychol Ther. 2011;11(2):285-96.
 
17. Janicak PG, Davis JM, Gibbons RD, Ericksen S, Chang S, Gallagher P. Efficacy of ECT: a meta-analysis. Am J Psychatr. 1985;142(3):297-302.
https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.142.3.297
PMid:3882006
 
18. Alipur H. Efficacy of electrical stimulation of the brain from the skull (tDCS) to reduce craving and improve positive affect and negative affect on methamphetamine-dependent individual. [Master Thesis]. Mashhad: Faculty of Medical Sciences, Mashhad Ferdowsi University; 2015. [Persian]
 
19. Ashrafpour S. Compare the effect of magnetic stimulation of the brain from the skull with and without neurofeedback on depression and psychological well-being depressed women in Tehran. [Master Thesis]. Ahvaz: Faculty of Psychology, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz; 2014. [Persian]
 
20. Marshal L, Mölle M, Siebner HR, Born J. Bifrontal transcranial direct current stimulation slows reaction time in a working memory task. BMC Neurosci. 2005;6(23).
https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2202-6-23
PMid:15819988 PMCid:PMC1090588
 
21. Mulquiney PG, Hoy EK, Daskalakis ZJ, Fitzgerald PB. Improving working memory: Exploring the effect of transcranial random noise stimulation and transcranial direct current stimulation on the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Clin Neurophysiol. 2011;122(12):2384-9.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clinph.2011.05.009
PMid:21665534
 
22. Mylius V, Jung K, Menzler A, Haag PH. Effects of transcranial direct current stimulation on pain perception and working memory. Eur J Pain. 2012;16:974-982.
https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1532-2149.2011.00105.x
PMid:22337597
Razavi International Journal of Medicine
Volume 7, Issue 1
January 2019
Pages 1-6

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics