P 255. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) for the treatment of major depression: A pooled analysis from the Italian tDCS collaborative group

Abstract

Introduction Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive and safe technique for the focal modulation of cortical brain areas, with an emerging role for treating major depression (Dell’Osso et al., 2011; Brunoni et al., 2012). Objectives The present study was aimed to analyze previous data from 141 patients, recruited from different Italian Psychiatric Clinics located in three geographically distinct areas: Milan, Verona and Naples. Such geographical heterogeneity makes it possible to consider the sample reasonably representative of the whole Italian population of depressed patients. Materials and methods 57 men and 84 women aged from 22 to 81 (mean 52.7) with current diagnosis of major depressive episode were considered for the pooled analysis. Comorbid conditions in Axis I, II and III were allowed, even though depression had to be the main issue at the moment of the admission visit. HAM-D (21 items) was administered as primary outcome measure, before and after tDCS, to assess treatment response. All patients underwent 10 bi-frontal applications of tDCS (anode in F3/cathode in F4, according to the 10/20 International EEG system); other stimulation parameters slightly differed depending on the study centers: 21 patients received daily 20 min applications of 1.5 mA current; 117 patients received twice-a-day 20 min applications of 2 mA current; 3 patients received daily 30 min applications of 2 mA current. Results A significant reduction of the HAM-D-21 total scores following tDCS (23.1 ± 7.2 pre vs. 17.7 ± 8.3 post, p p A repeated measures ANOVA using time as within factor and treatment as between factor revealed no significant differences in the main effect of treatment and in the time × treatment effects, meaning that the different treatment parameters did not influence the overall effect. Conclusion Our pooled analysis confirms the efficacy of bi-frontal tDCS for the treatment of Major Depression in the largest italian sample analyzed so far.