Home-administered transcranial direct current stimulation is a feasible intervention for depression: an observational cohort study

Leigh Charvet; Allan George; Erik Charlson; Matthew Lustberg; Amy Vogel-Eyny; Tehila Eilam-Stock; Hyein Cho; Pamela Best; Luis Fernandez; Abhishek Datta; Marom Bikson; Kamran Nazim; Giuseppina Pilloni

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1199773

Home-administered transcranial direct current stimulation is a feasible intervention for depression: an observational cohort study

Front Psychiatry. 2023 Aug 22:14:1199773. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1199773. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neurology, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY, United States.
² The Arthur S. Abramson Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, NY, United States.
³ Research and Development, Soterix Medical, Inc., Woodbridge Township, NJ, United States.
⁴ Department of Biomedical Engineering, The City College of New York, New York, NY, United States.

Abstract

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is an emerging treatment for major depression. We recruited participants with moderate-to-severe major depressive episodes for an observational clinical trial using Soterix Medical's tDCS telehealth platform as a standard of care. The acute intervention consisted of 28 sessions (5 sessions/week, 6 weeks) of the left anodal dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) tDCS (2.0 mA × 30 min) followed by a tapering phase of weekly sessions for 4 weeks (weeks 7-10). The n = 16 completing participants had a significant reduction in depressive symptoms by week 2 of treatment [Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS), Baseline: 28.00 ± 4.35 vs. Week 2: 17.12 ± 5.32, p < 0.001] with continual improvement across each biweekly timepoint. Acute intervention responder and remission rates were 75 and 63% and 88 and 81% following the taper period (week 10).

Keywords: depression; digital health; home-based tDCS; major depressive disorder; non-invasive brain stimulation; telehealth; transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS).

Grants and funding

LC was supported by grants from NIH: R01 NS112996 and R21 HD094424, US Department of Defense: W81XWH-17–1-0320, VA Healthcare: GRANT13010404, National MS Society: RG-1803–30492 and RFA-2104–37483, and NIDA-NIH: R21 DA055427 and R21 DA055426. AD was supported by grants from NIH: NIH-NIDA-75N95020C00024, DoD: W912CG21C0014 and W81XWH22C0111, NASA: 80NSSC22CA071, and ED: 91990022C0043. MB was supported by grants from Harold Shames and the National Institutes of Health: NIH-NIDA UG3DA048502, NIH-NIGMS T34 GM137858, NIH-NINDS R01 NS112996, NIH-NINDS R01 NS101362, and NIH-G-RISE T32GM136499. GP was supported by grants from DOD US: W81XWH-22-1-0812, National MS Society: RFA-2104–37483, and NIDA-NIH: R21 DA055427.