Effect of home-based transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on cognitive functioning in bipolar depression: an open-label, single-arm acceptability and feasibility study
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Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Bipolar depression is commonly accompanied by cognitive impairments. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is emerging as a novel non-invasive treatment for bipolar depression. Given the portability and safety of tDCS, we developed a home-based protocol with real-time supervision. Our aim was to assess the cognitive effects of a course of tDCS treatment in bipolar depression. 44 participants (31 women, mean age 47.27 years, SD 12.89) with bipolar depression of at least a moderate severity received 21 sessions of home-based tDCS over 6 weeks in an open-label design. The stimulation protocol involved 2 mA in a bilateral frontal montage (F3 anode, F4 cathode) for 30 min per session. Cognitive assessments were conducted at baseline and after the course of treatment: Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT) to assess verbal learning and memory and Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT) to assess psychomotor processing speed and visuospatial attention. 93.18% (n = 41) completed RAVLT and 59.09% of participants (n = 26) completed SDMT. A significant improvement was observed in RAVLT verbal learning score post-treatment (p = 0.002), which was not maintained following adjustment for improvement in depressive symptoms. In summary, a course of home-based tDCS in bipolar depression was associated with an improvement in verbal learning, which appeared to be related to improvement in depressive symptoms. These findings suggest potential benefits of tDCS for addressing cognitive impairments in bipolar depression, which can be investigated further in a sham-controlled design.
Date Issued
2025-03-17
Date Acceptance
2025-02-25
Citation
International Journal of Bipolar Disorders, 2025, 13
ISSN
2194-7511
Publisher
SpringerOpen
Journal / Book Title
International Journal of Bipolar Disorders
Volume
13
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2025. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
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Publication Status
Published
Article Number
11
Date Publish Online
2025-03-17