the effectiveness of cognitive rehabilitation of inhibitory control, transcranial direct current stimulation and combination of inhibitory control and transcranial direct current stimulation on inhibitory control and working memory in children with attention deficit disorder/hyperactivity

Inhibitory cognitive rehabilitation and transcranial direct current stimulation can be therapeutic alternatives to stimulant drugs in attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and there is evidence of their effectiveness in improving cognitive function and clinical symptoms. the aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of cognitive rehabilitation of inhibitory control, transcranial direct current stimulation and the combination of inhibitory control rehabilitation and transcranial direct current stimulation on inhibitory control and working memory of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. the method of the present study is quasi-experimental with an unbalanced control group design. the quasi-experimental design of the present study was pre-test-post-test and follow-up (2 months) with the control group. the population included all those with adhd disorder in arak in the academic year of 2019-2020. the sample consisted of 60 students in the age range of 8 -12 in arak who referred to counseling centers and student psychological services and answered the swanson attention deficit hyperactivity disorder questionnaire. the students were assigned to experimental and control groups (15 individuals in each group). to collect the data, swanson et al.’s attention deficit hyperactivity disorder questionnaire, n-back kirchner test and stroop computer test were used. the experimental group received a rescue inhibitory cognitive rehabilitation program, and transcranial direct current stimulation and a combination of these programs over the f4 points. the data were analyzed using spss.26 software and mixed covariance analysis with repeated measures. the results showed that inhibitory cognitive rehabilitation, transcranial direct current stimulation and combination of inhibitory cognitive rehabilitation of transcranial direct current stimulation are effective on the components of inhibitory control and working memory (p ≥ 0.001). the results of bonferroni post hoc tests showed that there is a significant difference between inhibitory control and working memory of experimental and control groups (p ≥ 0.01). it can be concluded that inhibitory cognitive rehabilitation, transcranial direct current stimulation and a combination of the two can be used as a single treatment or along with other psychological therapies for children with adhd.