effect of transcranial direct current stimulation on dorsolateral prefrontal cortex to reduce the symptoms of the obsessive-compulsive disorder

Introduction: obsessive-compulsive disorder (ocd) is one of the most common debilitatingmental disorders with a prevalence rate of 2% to 3% in the general population. previousstudies have indicated abnormalities in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlpfc) of ocdpatients; thus, we decided to use transcranial direct current stimulation (tdcs) to declinethese patients’ symptoms.methods: a total of 24 patients with ocd participated in this study with the hope ofimprovement after the application of tdcs. the subjects were randomly assigned to threegroups of sham, right dlpfc, and left dlpfc. tdcs was applied for five consecutive daysand in each session, patients were subjected to 2 ma current flow for two 15 minutes followedby a 10-minute rest in between (every session lasted for 40 minutes).results: subsequently, the changes in obsessive-compulsive level and cognitive functionswere evaluated via yale-brown obsessive-compulsive scale (y-bocs) and depression,anxiety, and stress scale 21 (dass-21) by comparing the results before (pre-test) and after(post-test) tdcs treatment.conclusion: ultimately, the scores of the yale-brown scale in the left dlpfc group showedsignificant changes after treatment with tdcs (mean difference compared to the shamgroup: -6.18 and p≤0.05). hereupon, this study demonstrated that transcranial direct currentstimulation may cause improvements in symptoms of ocd.