EFFECTIVENESS OF TRANSCRANIAL DIRECT CURRENT STIMULATION (TDCS) ON ATTENTION IN PEOPLE WITH DEPRESSION

Impairment in executive functions such as attention is a common symptom of depression. The purpose of this investigation was to study the effect of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on attention in patients with depression.

Thirty subjects diagnosed with depressive disorder who were referred to the Counseling Center of Azerbaijan Shahid Madani University were selected using convenience sampling. Then, the subjects were randomly divided into experimental and sham groups (n=15 per group). In order to investigate the effect of electrical stimulation on attention, the experimental group was exposed to anodal tDCS stimulation. The anode electrode was placed over the left DLPFC and the cathode electrode was placed over the right orbitofrontal cortex. The experimental group received tDCS stimulation with a current intensity of 2 mA, 20 min per session for 10 sessions. All subjects were evaluated before and after the tDCS intervention using classic stroop task. The obtained data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of covariance.

The results showed that anodal tDCS stimulation resulted in a significant decrease in interference score in the experimental group.

According to the findings of the present research, application of anodal tDCS over the left DLPFC improves attention by reducing the interference effect in people with depression. Therefore, tDCS can be used as a safe and non-pharmacological intervention to improve attention in patients with depression.