Safety and Tolerability of tDCS across Different Ages, Sexes, Diagnoses, and Amperages: A Randomized Double-Blind Controlled Study

Derrick M Buchanan; Sarah Amare; Genevieve Gaumond; Amedeo D'Angiulli; Philippe Robaey

doi:10.3390/jcm12134346

Safety and Tolerability of tDCS across Different Ages, Sexes, Diagnoses, and Amperages: A Randomized Double-Blind Controlled Study

J Clin Med. 2023 Jun 28;12(13):4346. doi: 10.3390/jcm12134346.

Authors

Derrick M Buchanan^{1

2

3}, Sarah Amare^{1

2

3}, Genevieve Gaumond^{1

2

3}, Amedeo D'Angiulli^{1

2}, Philippe Robaey^{1

3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neuroscience, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON K1S 5B6, Canada.
² Neuroscience of Imagination Cognition Emotion Research Lab, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON K1S 5B6, Canada.
³ Neuropsychiatric Lab, Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, Ottawa, ON K1H 8L1, Canada.
⁴ Department of Psychiatry, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada.

Abstract

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive brain stimulation technique with substantial evidence for its safety and tolerability in adults. However, less than 5% of published tDCS research is in pediatrics. Our primary objective was to investigate tDCS safety, tolerability, and acceptability in a sample of children and adults. We hypothesized that children and adults would be equal with regard to tDCS safety, tolerability, and acceptability. We tested this hypothesis using a Bayesian approach. Sixty participants aged 6-45 (balanced for sex) participated in a randomized double-blind controlled trial. They were randomly assigned to two ten-minute tDCS sessions with varying amperages and electrode locations. The primary outcome measure of this study was the intensity of 13 potential side effects evaluated at six different time points spanning two weeks. Independent sample Bayes factor tests were conducted between children/adults, males/females, clinical/healthy, and low/high amperage groups. As predicted, there was moderate support for the null hypothesis in all between-group analyses. There were no serious adverse events or dropouts, and the number needed to treat for an additional harmful outcome was 23. This study provided evidence supporting the overall short-term safety, tolerability, and acceptability of tDCS including amperages up to 2 mA and different electrode placements.

Keywords: adolescents; children; safety; tdcs; tolerability.

Grants and funding

This research was partially supported by the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Psychiatry Associates Research Fund, and the New Frontiers in Research Fund.