Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) Versus Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) in Remission of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a mental dysfunction. The main characteristics of OCD are serious and continuous mental and functional obsessions that severely inflict patients. The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of exposure and response prevention (ERP) versus transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in reduction of anxiety symptoms and increase of global functioning in patients with OCD.
This study employed clinical trial with pre-post tests and follow-up. 20 patients with OCD who had referred to psychology and psychiatry clinic of Shahid Beheshti Hospital in Zanjan, were selected according to purposive sampling and were randomly assigned to two treatment groups. Throughout the baseline, post-treatment and follow-up (one month and two months after the treatment), the subjects were asked to complete Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) questioner. Global Assessment of functioning (GAFS) was also employed to evaluate global functioning. Eventually, the collected data was analyzed using SPSS (version 20).
The results indicated that there was no considerable differences between the two groups regarding anxiety symptoms in the post-test, but there was significant differences in global functioning between ERP and tDCS.
The findings confirmed that both ERP and tDCS methods with pharmacotherapy were considerably effective in the reduction of anxiety signs and symptoms and the increase of global functioning in patients with OCD, but the effectiveness of ERP was clinically more significant than tDCS.