Transcranial direct current stimulation over the right parietal cortex improves the depressive disorder: A preliminary study

Objective: The right posterior parietal cortex is the core brain region of emotional processing and executive control network in the human brain, and the function of the right posterior parietal cortex is decreased in patients with major depressive disorder. This study aims to preliminarily investigate whether the excitation of the right posterior parietal cortex by transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) could improve their clinical symptoms. Methods: In this study, 12 patients with major depressive disorder were given tDCS treatment at Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University and the First Hospital of Hebei Medical University. The stimulating electrode (anode) was placed on the patients' right parietal cortex, whereas the reference electrode (cathode) was placed on the patients' left mastoid. The stimulation intensity was set as 2.0 mA. The patients with depressive disorder were treated for 20 min at a time twice a day for 14 consecutive days. The severity of the clinical symptoms was evaluated using the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale-17 (HDRS-17) and the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HARS) at before and right after treatment. Results: The HDRS-17 scores of patients with depressive disorder decreased significantly following the tDCS treatment compared with those before treatment (p < .001). Further analysis revealed that the patients' anxiety/somatization, cognitive deficit, retardation, and sleep disorder scores all decreased significantly after the tDCS treatment (p < .05), although there was no significant change in their weight. Moreover, the patients' HARS scores decreased significantly after the tDCS treatment when compared with those before treatment (p < .01). Conclusion: The right parietal cortex may be another key stimulation targets to improving the efficacy of tDCS treatment to the patients with major depressive disorder.