Citation

Haller N, Senner F, Brunoni AR, Padberg F, Palm U. J. Psychiatr. Res. 2020; 130: 31-34.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.jpsychires.2020.07.009

PMID

32771678

Abstract

Major depression is one of the most common psychiatric disorders with a high rate of treatment resistance where new treatment options are urgently warranted. One of these new options are non-invasive brain stimulation techniques like transcranial magnetic or electric stimulation. One of the latter is transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation (tACS) in various frequencies. Here, we report a case series of six patients suffering from major depression treated with tACS in gamma (40 Hz) frequency. Patients were randomized to two groups, receiving either two 10-min stimulations (group 1) or a 20-min stimulation or per day (group 2) over ten days. Hamilton Depression Rating Scale and Beck Depression Inventory decreased during treatment in both study groups by 85% and 78% (group 1), or 62% and 24% respectively (group 2).

RESULTS also showed an improvement in cognitive functions assessed by word fluency and n-back test. It is hypothesized that gamma tACS could help to synchronize disturbed frequency bands in frontal and prefrontal cortex areas and thus restore dysbalanced neural connectivity in psychiatric disorders.

Language: en

Keywords

Cognitive impairment; Major depressive disorder; Non-invasive brain stimulation; tACS