Journal
EUROPEAN ARCHIVES OF PSYCHIATRY AND CLINICAL NEUROSCIENCE
Volume 269, Issue 3, Pages 275-284Publisher
SPRINGER HEIDELBERG
DOI: 10.1007/s00406-018-0948-5
Keywords
Addictive disorders; Gambling disorder; Transcranial direct current stimulation; Decision making; Executive functions; Cognitive functions
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Decision making and cognitive flexibility are two components of cognitive control that play a critical role in the emergence, persistence, and relapse of gambling disorder. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) has been reported to enhance decision making and cognitive flexibility in healthy volunteers and individuals with addictive disorders. In this triple-blind randomized sham-controlled parallel study, we aimed to determine whether tDCS over DLPFC would modulate decision making and cognitive flexibility in individuals with gambling disorder. Twenty participants with gambling disorder were administered Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST). Subsequently, participants were administered three every other day sessions of active right anodal/left cathodal tDCS (20 min, 2 mA) or sham stimulation over bilateral DLPFC. WCST and IGT were readministered following the last session. Baseline clinical severity, depression, impulsivity levels, and cognitive performance were similar between groups. TDCS over the DLPFC resulted in more advantageous decision making (F-1,F-16 = 8.128, p = 0.01, eta p(2) = 0.33) and better cognitive flexibility (F-1,F-16 = 8.782, p = 0.009, eta p(2) = 0.35), representing large effect sizes. The results suggest for the first time that tDCS enhanced decision making and cognitive flexibility in gambling disorder. Therefore, tDCS may be a promising neuromodulation-based therapeutic approach in gambling disorder.
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