Effects and safety of transcranial direct current stimulation on multiple health outcomes: an umbrella review of randomized clinical trials
Kang et. al, 2024. Molecular Psychiatry.
- We identified 15 meta-analyses of RCTs (AMSTAR 2; high 3, moderate 3, and low 9) that included 282 original articles, covering 22 unique health endpoints across 22 countries and six continents.
- We found varied levels of evidence for the effects of tDCS with multiple neurological and neuropsychiatric conditions, from very low to high certainty of evidence.
- tDCS was effective for people with stroke, obsessive-compulsive disorder, fibromyalgia, disease of consciousness, schizophrenia, migraine, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, depression, cerebellar ataxia, and pain.
- These findings suggest the benefit of tDCS for several neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders; however, further studies are needed to understand the underlying mechanism and optimize its therapeutic potential.