Four study visits over 4 consecutive days (2 days of tDCS stimulation and 2 days of sham stimulation)
Attention; self-report measure of difficulty with memory, attention, concentration, language, and thinking abilities; measure of difficulties with attention and concentration related to difficulty filtering irrelevant sensory information; patients’ experience with tDCS; adverse events related to tDCS
Self-reported cognitive difficulties: A nominal decrease in self-reported cognitive problems: mean PAOFI score pre-tDCS (97.71 ± 25.54) vs. after tDCS (93.93 ± 21.90) sessions Marginally significant change in SGI scores from pre-tDCS (M = 62.14 ± 30.49) vs. after tDCS (M = 56.43 ± 29.22) Attention: Better sustained attention in tDCS group vs. sham,
T0: five sessions of tDCS on 5 consecutive days T1: 2 weeks after tDCS completion
Executive functioning; memory (nonverbal); attention; global cognitive score
Go/No-Go test, stroop interference test and catch game; immediate recognition and delayed recognition tests; score across the three cognitive domains
Improvements in all cognitive functions except attention. Global cognitive score: pre-tDCS: 88.7 after tDCS: 108.6 after 2 weeks: 103.9 Memory: pre-tDCS: 79.4 after tDCS: 114.9 after 2 weeks: 111.9 Executive functions: pre-tDCS: 89.5 after tDCS: 108.2 after 2 weeks: 101.3 Attention: pre-tDCS: 97.2 post-tDCS: 102.8 post 2 weeks: 98.5
T0: One tDCS stimulation (20 min) for 5 consecutive days
Pain; depression and anxiety; analgesic and coanalgesic consumption in chronic pain
VAS; HAD; MQS
Pain: Prestimulation: VAS score varying between 6 and 8/10 with at least four very painful peaks per day poststimulation: by the second day of treatment, VAS fluctuating between 2 and 3/10 with only 1–2 painful peaks per day Drug treatment: Pre-stimulation: 36 MQS score Post-stimulation: 15 MQS score Depression Prestimulation: 14/21 HAD score poststimulation: 6/21 HAD score
tDCS group received stimulation for 20 min on 5 consecutive days after thoracotomy vs. sham group T1: immediately before the thoracotomy T2: immediately after the thoracotomy T3–T6: every 1 hr for 4 hr Т7–Т31: every 6 hr for 5 days
Pain; depression; anxiety; morphine dose
VAS; BDI; PRO survey (questions on pain intensity, time with severe pain; pain interference, patient satisfaction)
Morphine dose: Cumulative morphine dose administered during the first 120 hr after surgery was lower by 31.25% (Cohen’s d = 0.42) in the tDCS group () Pain: On postoperative day 5, VAS pain score with cough was significantly lower in the tDCS group () Pain intensity, time with severe pain, pain interference: Pain interference with cough (PROs) was 80% lower (), and not identify any other differences existed between groups with regard to PRO Anxiety, depression, mood: There was no significant difference between group
Prestudy visit: EEG + full questionnaire packet 1 week of CRT: full questionnaire packet 2 week of CRT: five tDCS stimulation daily + EEG + questionnaires 3 week of CRT: five tDCS stimulation daily + EEG + questionnaires 4 weeks of CRT: three tDCS stimulation daily + questionnaires 5 weeks of CRT: three tDCS stimulation daily + questionnaires 6 week of CRT: two tDCS stimulation daily + questionnaires 7 weeks of CRT: two tDCS stimulation daily + EEG + full questionnaire Packet 1 week follow-up: EEG + full questionnaires packet 1 month follow-up: EEG + full questionnaires packet
Pain; weight loss; and graded dysphagia between the tDCS stimulus cohort and control cohort
VAS; PANAS
Pain: After tDCS: VAS reduced in every week (average decrease range: 0.19–0.57) and PANAS scores decreased (positive decrease range: −0.25–6.5, negative decrease range: 0.5–3.5)
Before chemotherapy T0: measurements before tDCS one session of tDCS stimulation (20 min) or sham treatment
After chemotherapy T1, T2, T3: measurements every 24 hr for 72 hr after cessation of chemotherapy
Patients’ nausea; pain, malaise, and sense of well-being
Cumulative index of nausea, VAS-N, episodes of vomiting; ESAS
Pain: No significant difference in tDCS group vs. sham group. Malaise: tDCS showed a reduction in ESAS malaise score () Sense of well-being: tDCS group improves sense of well-being score () over 3 days vs. the sham group
20 sessions of individually tailored anodal tDCs + neurofeedback twice a week
Depression
BDI
Depression: Before surgery: no depression (BDI score: 10) 1 month after surgery: mild depression (BDI score: 20) 6 months after surgery: severe depression (BDI score: 32) tDCS stimulation on depressive symptoms: After tDCS + neurofeedback: no depression (BDI score: 6) After 6 months of follow-up: no depression (BDI score: 7)
Pain; mood; anxiety; memory; attention; and cognitive functions
Numeric scales for pain, mood, and anxiety; MMSE, stroop test, forward and backward digit span; questionnaire for adverse effects
Pain, mood, anxiety: Sham group: no changes tDCS group: pain reduction from 4 to 0; no changes in mood and anxiety after tDCS. Cognitive effects: Sham group: MMSE and digit span forward: no changes Digit span backward: increase from 2 to 3 (row scores) Stroop colors performance execution time decreased tDCS group: MMSE and digit span forward and backward: no changes Stroop colors execution time decreased from 23.06 to 20.56 s (row scores)
Notes. tDCS = transcranial direct current stimulation; SAS = self-rating anxiety scale; SDS = self-rating depression scale; CPT = Conners’ continuous performance test; PAOFI = patient assessment of own functioning inventory; SGI = sensory gating inventory; VAS = visual analogue scale; HAD = Hamilton anxiety and depression scale; MQS = medication quantification scale; BDI = beck depression inventor; VAS-N = visual analog scale for nausea; ESAS = Edmonton symptoms assessment scale; VDS = verbal descriptor scale; HAM-D = Hamilton rating scale for depression; MMSE = mini-mental state examination; CRT = chemoradiotherapy; PANAS = McGill and positive and negative affect schedule.
