Effectiveness of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) on Cravings, Cognitive Flexibility, and Abstraction for Opioid Addicts

Craving drug abuse is a common manifestation of the urgent and irrecoverable desire against substance abuse. The present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on cravings, cognitive flexibility, and the abstraction of opiate abusers.

The research design was a randomized clinical trial design with a 2-month follow-up. The statistical population consisted of opiate addicts, and 30 men selected through the convenience sampling method were assigned into experimental (tDCS) and sham groups (15 people per group). The tools used in this research were Franken et al. Instant Craving Questionnaire and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test which was performed on two groups before the intervention. The tDCS intervention method included 10 sessions of 20 minutes with an intensity of 2 milliamps. The obtained data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of covariance.

The results obtained using covariance analysis showed a significant difference between the experimental and sham groups in the post-test and follow-up in all three components of the cravings and the scores of the components of the Wisconsin test (P<0.001).

TDCS has essential implications in reducing cravings and improving executive cognitive flexibility in addicts to opiates and is recommended as an effective treatment method for addiction therapists in treatment clinics.