%0 Journal Article
%T Double-blind, randomized pilot clinical trial targeting alpha oscillations with transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) for the treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD)
%J -
%D 2019
%R https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-019-0439-0
%X Major depressive disorder (MDD) is one of the most common psychiatric disorders, but pharmacological treatments are ineffective in a substantial fraction of patients and are accompanied by unwanted side effects. Here we evaluated the feasibility and efficacy of transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) at 10£¿Hz, which we hypothesized would improve clinical symptoms by renormalizing alpha oscillations in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC). To this end, 32 participants with MDD were randomized to 1 of 3 arms and received daily 40£¿min sessions of either 10£¿Hz-tACS, 40£¿Hz-tACS, or active sham stimulation for 5 consecutive days. Symptom improvement was assessed using the Montgomery¨C£¿sberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) as the primary outcome. High-density electroencephalograms (hdEEGs) were recorded to measure changes in alpha oscillations as the secondary outcome. For the primary outcome, we did not observe a significant interaction between treatment condition (10£¿Hz-tACS, 40£¿Hz-tACS, sham) and session (baseline to 4 weeks after completion of treatment); however, exploratory analyses show that 2 weeks after completion of the intervention, the 10£¿Hz-tACS group had more responders (MADRS and HDRS) compared with 40£¿Hz-tACS and sham groups (n£¿=£¿30, p£¿=£¿0.026). Concurrently, we found a significant reduction in alpha power over the left frontal regions in EEG after completion of the intervention for the group that received per-protocol 10£¿Hz-tACS (n£¿=£¿26, p£¿<£¿0.05). Our data suggest that targeting oscillations with tACS has potential as a therapeutic intervention for treatment of MDD
%U https://www.nature.com/articles/s41398-019-0439-0