AUTHOR=Burkhardt Gerrit , Goerigk Stephan , Dechantsreiter Esther , Bulubas Lucia , Soldini Aldo , Zwanzger Peter , Diemer Julia , Padberg Frank , Brunnauer Alexander , Kumpf Ulrike 

TITLE=Driving-related cognitive skills during antidepressant transcranial direct current stimulation: results in a subsample from the DepressionDC trial

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychiatry

VOLUME=14

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1255415

DOI=10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1255415

ISSN=1664-0640

ABSTRACT=<p>Therapeutic transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a well-tolerated neuromodulatory intervention. However, there are currently no data on its impact on driving skills. Therefore, we conducted a validated assessment of driving-related cognitive skills in participants of the DepressionDC trial, a multicenter, randomized-controlled trial investigating the antidepressant effects of 6-week prefrontal tDCS in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). Twenty-one patients (12 women, active tDCS, <italic>n</italic> = 11, sham, <italic>n</italic> = 10) underwent an assessment of driving-related cognitive skills before and after the intervention. Using a Bayesian analysis approach, we found no group differences between active tDCS and sham tDCS in the pre-post treatment changes for <italic>visual perception</italic> (estimated median difference: 3.41 [−3.17, 10.55 89%-CI], BF<sub>01</sub>: 2.1), <italic>stress tolerance</italic> (estimated median difference: 0.77 [−2.40, 4.15 89%-CI], BF<sub>01</sub>: 1.6), and <italic>reaction time</italic> (estimated median difference: 2.06 [−12.33, 16.83 89%-CI], BF<sub>01</sub>: 6.5). Our results indicate that repeated sessions of a conventional bifrontal tDCS protocol do not negatively impact driving-related cognitive skills in patients with MDD.</p>