The Effectiveness of 3MA transcranial direct current stimulation (TDCS) on cognitive function, depression, anxiety and severity of obsessive-compulsive symptoms in individuals with OCD: A randomized clinical trial

Determining the effectiveness of applying the 3mA TDCS protocol in the right lower frontal and left supraorbital regions on cognitive functions, depression, anxiety, and severity of obsessive-compulsive symptoms in people with OCD

A controlled, parallel-group, double-blind, randomized clinical trial on 32 patients. Simple randomization was used.

This research will be carried out in the Beheshti hospital clinic in Zanjan with direct current transcranial electrical stimulation for 20 sessions in 10 days.

Having the full diagnostic criteria for obsessive-compulsive disorder as diagnosed by a psychiatrist and psychologist based on the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, age range 18 to 50 years, not receiving psychological treatment two months before the intervention, and simultaneously with the implementation of the intervention until the follow-up period, the same Being the drug group used along with adjusting the dose. Inclusion criteria: psychosis, risk of suicide, presence of electrical objects in the body, history of seizures, pregnancy

According to the desired protocol, the patients of the intervention group will receive real stimulation with an intensity of 3 milliamps for twenty sessions of 20 minutes in ten days, with the anode placed in the right area of the lower frontal cortex and the cathode on the left supraorbital area. And the sham group will also receive sham stimulation for the same number of sessions in these areas.

Clinical symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder, working memory, cognitive inhibition, cognitive flexibility, visual memory, sustained attention, depression, anxiety

The samples are randomly assigned to the intervention and sham groups. Random allocation is done using Excel software. For this, in the first column, we enter 16 numbers 1 and 16 numbers 2 representing the real intervention group and the sham intervention group, respectively. Then, in the second column, we generate 32 random numbers using the (RAND) function. We sort the data based on column values containing random numbers (ascending or descending). With this sorting, the order of placement of numbers 1 and 2 will also change and be placed randomly. Based on the order of appearance of numbers 1 and 2, the samples are assigned to two groups.

The people under study do not know the type of intervention. Both the researcher and the evaluator are unaware of the type of intervention. The device is set by one of the clinic staff on real or sham intervention and the patient receives a code based on that. The people who analyze the results do not know the nature of the study groups and the evaluation is done by someone other than the researcher.