None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
Many depressed individuals fail to respond to available pharmacological and psychological therapies and there is a significant need to develop novel antidepressant treatment approaches. Traditionally, both research into and treatment approaches for depression have focused on the emotional disturbance associated with this illness. However, depression also disrupts cognitive processing. There is now considerable evidence indicating that the cognitive and emotional symptoms of depression interact with each other (e.g. causing an individual to remember more negative memories, or to pay more attention to negative thoughts and stimuli), and these interactions directly contribute to the length and severity of depressive episodes. Recently it has been suggested that targeting the cognitive symptoms of depression may also help to improve emotional dysfunction. One way that this could be achieved via cognitive control training (CCT). CCT simply involves a small number of thinking activities that an individual repeatedly practices to improve their ability to sustain and focus their attention and to self-direct their thought processes. The cognitive processes that CCT aims to enhance are largely subsumed by a frontal region of the brain called the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Research has shown that a mild form of brain stimulation called transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) administered to this brain region can enhance cognitive processing. As such, tDCS may be a useful means of augmenting the efficacy of CCT for depression.
Interventions
Participants engage in five treatment sessions on consequent week days. Each session comprises cognitive training coupled with active or sham transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). Specifically, participants are randomised to one of the following intervention conditions:
a) cognitive control training + anodal tDCS (2mA)
b) cognitive control training + sham tDCS
c) peripheral vision training + anodal tDCS (2mA)
Cognitive control training comprises a set of computerised thinking tasks
Participants engage in five treatment sessions on consequent week days. Each session comprises cognitive training coupled with active or sham transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). Specifically, participants are randomised to one of the following intervention conditions: a) cognitive control training + anodal tDCS (2mA) b) cognitive control training + sham tDCS c) peripheral vision training + anodal tDCS (2mA) Cognitive control training comprises a set of computerised thinking tasks designed to engage the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex region of the brain. The peripheral vision training comprises a set of computerised thinking tasks designed to engage the visual cortex to a great degree than the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Both types of training will be administered concurrently with active/sham tDCS throughout five 24-minute treatment sessions.
Sponsors
Monash University
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Primary purpose
Treatment
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
18 Years to 65 Years
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
1. Are voluntary and competent to consent, 2. Are currently in the midst of a DSM-IV defined Major Depressive Episode.
Exclusion criteria
1. Have a DSM-IV defined history of bipolar disorder, psychotic illness, obsessive compulsive disorder or substance abuse or dependence in the last 6-months, 2. Have a history of traumatic brain injury or neurologic illness, 3. Are currently taking carbamazepine or benzodiazepines, 4. Are currently pregnant or lactating.
Outcome results
None listed