The effectiveness of cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation in patients with obsessive - compulsive disorder

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is one of the disabling disorders associated with extensive personal and social costs. This disorder has a significant comorbidity with depression and anxiety disorders, and many of these patients do not respond to psychotherapy and medication. Thus can we develop a new and non-invasive brain stimulation techniques to improve obsessive-compulsive symptoms.

This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation (c-tDCS) on obsessive-compulsive, anxiety, and depressive symptoms in patients with OCD.

Thirty OCD patients (15 patients in the experimental group and 15 patients in the placebo group) were selected by convenience sampling. In the intervention step, the experimental group received c-tDCS for 10 sessions (2 sessions per week, 20 minutes each session with 2 mA intensity) and the placebo subjects received the sham-tDCS. Subjects in both groups were evaluated using the Yale-Brown obsessive-compulsive scale(Goodman, 1989), the Hamilton anxiety rating scale(1959), and the Beck depression inventory(1978) in the first and tenth sessions.

The results of this study showed that the use of c-tDCS in orbitofrontal cortex and anodal transcranial direct current stimulation in O2 region resulted in significant reduction of obsessive-compulsive symptoms (p<0/001), anxiety (p<0/003), and depression (p<0/004) in OCD patients.

tDCS is an effective non-invasive technique for the improvement of obsessive-compulsive symptoms, anxiety, and depression in OCD patients.