The Effectiveness of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Treatment with Cognitive Rehabilitation on Reducing Craving and Improving Inhibitory Control in Tramadol-Dependent Adolescents

Abuse of substances leads to much damage in different fields. Therefore, necessary measures should be taken to prevent infection, withdrawal and prevent return. The present study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of transcranial Direct Current Stimulation combined with cognitive rehabilitation in reducing cravings and improving inhibitory control in adolescents dependent on tramadol.

This research is semi-experimental with a pre-test-post-test design and followup with a control group. The statistical population of this research was all boys and girls (14 to 18 years old) dependent on tramadol in Shahrekord in Iran in 2022. 30 people (12 girls and 18 boys) were selected by the available sampling method and randomly replaced in two experimental and control groups with 15 people. The research tool included Franken et al.’s Desires for Drug Questionnaire and Hoffman’s Go/ No Go Test. Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation treatment combined with cognitive rehabilitation in 10 sessions and each session for 20 minutes was performed on the experimental group, but the control group did not receive any intervention. Data analysis was done using descriptive methods and multivariate covariance analysis (MANCOVA) in SPSS 21 software.

The average age of the subjects studied in the present study was 16.70±1.35 years. Data analysis showed that transcranial Direct Current Stimulation combined with cognitive rehabilitation in the experimental group could explain 65% of the variance of dependent variables in the post-test phase and 61% of this variance in the follow-up phase. Also, according to the F values for the craving post-test (39.396), inhibitory control post-test (15.677), craving follow-up (24.404) and inhibitory control follow-up (13.840) and their significance level which is less than 0.05, it was observed that transcranial Direct Current Stimulation combined with cognitive rehabilitation was effective in reducing cravings and improving inhibitory control in the post-test and follow-up phase.

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation treatment combined with cognitive rehabilitation is effective in reducing cravings and improving inhibitory control in adolescents addicted to tramadol and can be used by relevant experts as an effective treatment in this field.