Effectiveness of strengthening metacognitive therapy with transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) in major depressive disorder

One out of four patients with psychiatric disorders does not respond adequately to standard treatment, and this will lead to personal and social burdens. The present study aimed to assess the effectiveness of strengthening metacognitive therapy with transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) in major depressive disorder.

The statistical population of this clinical trial consisted of outpatients with major depressive disorder in Mashhad city-Iran. Forty-five patients were selected by purposeful sampling and randomly divided into three groups (active group (metacognitive therapy enriched with tDCS), sham group (metacognitive therapy unenriched with tDCS), and metacognitive group). The intervention was conducted in 10 training ninety-minute sessions. All patients responded to the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) and the Hamilton Depression Scale (HAM-D) in pre-test, post-test, and follow-up stages. Data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of covariance and ANOVA for repeated measures.

The results showed a significant difference between the depression scores in the three stages (P< 0.01). Furthermore, there was a significant difference between depression scores in the mentioned groups, and this difference is greater for metacognitive therapy enriched with tDCS.

Based on the findings, added transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) to metacognitive therapy positively impacts treating depression in patients with major depressive disorder.