Impact of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation with Psychological Effects of Color on Stroke-Induced Depression

Depression is a common psychiatric disorder after a stroke. These patients often experience defective recovery despite intensive medication and psychotherapy. Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) of the brain is a technique used to stimulate different areas of the brain in neurological and psychiatric patients. One of the aims of this study was to investigate the psychological effects of color along with cerebral transduction direct electrical stimulation on stroke-induced depression.

This was a quasi-experimental study. Fifteen stroke patients hospitalized in the Shahid Sadoughi Hospital in Yazd (nine males and six females with a mean age of 55.76 years and mean post-stroke of 47.4 years) were selected and randomly divided into three groups of A, B, and C. Their Beck Depression Scale scores were compared in three occasions after treatment, after sham, and two months after the treatment. Each patient received ten sessions of sham electrical stimulation (20 minutes) with white, ten sessions of anodic stimulation and cathodic stimulation (2 mA-20 min) with white, and ten sessions of anodic stimulation and cathodic stimulation (2 mA-20 min) with green in left and right dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex, respectively. Data analysis was performed in two levels of descriptive (mean & standard deviation) and inferential (ANOVA with repeated measures) using SPSS software v. 21.

The findings of (ANOVA with repeated measures demonstrated that compared with a white color treatment, depression declined immediately after treatment with green and white color (P<0.001) and a follow-up period (P<0.001).

In line with the findings of this study, direct electrical stimulation with the green color can be utilized in the rehabilitation of stroke patients. However, electrical stimulation with the color green had a superior recovery than the white color.