The Effects of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation on Obsession-compulsion, Anxiety, and Depression of a Patient Suffering from Obsessive-compulsive Disorder

Obsessive-Compulsive disorder (OCD) is one of the greatest and debilitating disorders, which many of its patients do not respond to psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy. In this regard, paying attention to new treatments such as transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is important. The purpose of the present research was to examine the effects of tDCS on the obsession-compulsion (OC), anxiety, and depression of a patient suffering from OCD.
The present study conducted on a 23-year-old female patient with OCD. tDCS sessions were lasted 10 days, one session per day and each session of about 20 minutes with 2.0 mA intensity. The results of Beck depression inventory, Hamilton anxiety rating scale, and Yale Brown obsessive-compulsive scale showed decrease in OC, depression, and anxiety symptoms after 10 sessions of tDCS.
The results of the present research using cathodal tDCS on orbitofrontal cortex in 10 sessions showed that this montage is a powerful and successful treatment for patients with OCD and alleviate their OC, depression, and anxiety symptoms.
The data were analyzed by diagram analysis and improvement percentage. This study showed that anodal tDCS on O2 and cathodal tDCS on orbitofrontal cortex improved OC, anxiety and depression symptoms. However, our findings give introductory confirmation that our patient with OCD has a positive response to cathode tDCS of the OFC.