This isn't shock therapy.....
Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a safe and effective add-on therapy for type I or II bipolar depression, researchers found.
"We were excited to show evidence that tDCS can be clinically effective for this population," Brunoni told MedPage Today, adding that in their study, the rate of treatment-emergent affective switches (TEAS) was similar between groups. "Nonetheless," he said, "I would recommend extra caution when applying tDCS for bipolar depressed patients who frequently present manic switches."
The study of tDCS was devised as an add-on trial in patients with bipolar depression receiving a stable pharmacologic regimen in the sham-controlled BETTER trial, which was conducted from July 1, 2014, to March 30, 2016. A parallel design was used to randomly assign 59 patients to either sham or active tDCS.
All patients had type I or II bipolar disorder with a major depressive episode and were receiving a stable pharmacologic regimen with Hamilton Depression Rating Scale-17 (HDRS-17) scores scores higher than 17. There was also a high prevalence of comorbid anxiety disorders in the study population. A third of patients had experienced an acute depressive episode that was unresponsive to at least two treatment regimens.
Of the 59 patients, a total of 52 (26 active and 26 sham) received all 12 tDCS treatment sessions. This included 10 daily 30-minute sessions of active or sham tDCS on weekdays and then one session every 2 weeks until week 6.
Participants lay in comfortable reclining chairs while scalp electrodes delivered weak, direct currents into the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) region of the brain -- an area responsible for cognitive control and emotion regulation, which is hypoactive in depression. Patients were allowed to read or use their smartphones but not sleep. Talking with staff was minimal.