{"id":1066,"date":"2020-08-26T14:36:44","date_gmt":"2020-08-26T14:36:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/interhospi.3wstaging.nl\/drugs-found-to-be-more-effective-against-depression-than-electric-current\/"},"modified":"2020-08-26T14:37:05","modified_gmt":"2020-08-26T14:37:05","slug":"drugs-found-to-be-more-effective-against-depression-than-electric-current","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/interhospi.com\/drugs-found-to-be-more-effective-against-depression-than-electric-current\/","title":{"rendered":"Drugs found to be more effective against depression than electric current"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span lang=\"EN-GB\">A new study questions the efficacy of treatments for depression based on stimulating brain areas with low-intensity electric current. The technique, known as transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS), was considered a promising alternative to treatment with antidepressant drugs.<\/span><br \/>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\">In the new study, researchers at the University of S\u00e3o Paulo&#8217;s teaching hospital (HU-USP) and the Psychiatry Institute of Hospital das Cl\u00ednicas (HC-FMUSP-IP), the largest general hospital in Brazil, describe a trial in which they found tDCS to be less effective than escitalopram, an anti-depressant.<\/span><br \/>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\">The team of researchers led by Andr\u00e9 Brunoni, a professor in the Psychiatry Department of the University of S\u00e3o Paulo&#8217;s Medical School (FMUSP) and director of HC-FMUSP-IP&#8217;s Interdisciplinary Neuromodulation Service, randomly divided 245 patients with depression into three groups.<\/span><br \/>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\">One group was treated with tDCS plus oral placebo, the second received sham tDCS treatment plus the anti-depressant, and the third received sham tDCS treatment plus oral placebo.<\/span><br \/>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\">The tDCS treatment was administered in 30-minute sessions for 15 consecutive weekdays, followed by seven once-weekly sessions. Escitalopram was administered at a dose of 10 mg per day for three weeks and 20 mg per day for another seven weeks.<\/span><br \/>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\">&quot;We defined non-inferiority of stimulation compared with medication as at least 50%, meaning that tDCS would have to be at least 50% as effective as the anti-depressant, but this wasn&#8217;t the case,&quot; Brunoni said. <\/span><br \/>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\">&quot;We found that treatment with tDCS was not half as effective as treatment with escitalopram and concluded that transcranial stimulation cannot be recommended as first-line therapy. The anti-depressant is easier to administer and much more effective. On the other hand, tDCS performed better than placebo in our previous studies.&quot;<\/span><br \/>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\">About 12%-14% of the world&#8217;s population is estimated to suffer from depression, and it is relatively easy to find self-help websites with videos showing how to administer tDCS at home.<\/span><br \/>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\">Brunoni stressed the importance of not confusing tDCS with other methods such as electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), which involves a far stronger current &#8211; typically 800 milliamperes, or 800 times the current used in tDCS &#8211; and is designed to produce a controlled seizure. Other differences include the fact that ECT delivers a brief pulse rather than a steady current.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN-GB\"><link https:\/\/www.eurekalert.org\/pub_releases\/2017-08\/fda-dft083117.php _blank external-link-new-window \"Opens external link in new window\">www.eurekalert.org\/pub_releases\/2017-08\/fda-dft083117.php<\/link><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new study questions the efficacy of treatments for depression based on stimulating brain areas with low-intensity electric current. The technique, known as transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS), was considered a promising alternative to treatment with antidepressant drugs. In the new study, researchers at the University of S\u00e3o Paulo&#8217;s teaching hospital (HU-USP) and the Psychiatry Institute [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":638,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/interhospi.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1066"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/interhospi.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/interhospi.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/interhospi.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/interhospi.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1066"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/interhospi.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11034,"href":"https:\/\/interhospi.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1066\/revisions\/11034"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/interhospi.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/interhospi.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/interhospi.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/interhospi.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}