Case Series of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation as an Augmentation Strategy for Attention Bias Modification Treatment in Adolescents with Anxiety Disorders

This article presents the results of a case series to assess the feasibility, acceptability, and clinical promise of transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) as an augmentation strategy in clinic referred adolescents. Attention Bias Modification Treatment (ABMT) is a computer-based attention-training protocol designed to reduce rapidly deployed attention orienting to threat and thereby reduce anxiety symptom severity. Studies of ABMT reveal overall small to medium effect sizes. Advances in the neural underpinnings of attention to threat and attention-training protocols suggest the potential of tDCS of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) as a novel augmentation strategy to enhance ABMT’s efficacy (ABMT + tDCS). However, tDCS has never been tested in a sample of adolescents with anxiety disorders. Six adolescents with a primary anxiety disorder completed all four ABMT + tDCS sessions. Adverse effects were mild and transient. Adolescents and parents independently reported fair to excellent levels of satisfaction. Impairment ratings of the primary anxiety disorder significantly decreased. Further, electrophysiological data recorded via electroencephalography (EEG) suggested decreases in neural resources allocated to threat. These findings support the feasibility, acceptability, and clinical promise of tDCS as an augmentation strategy in adolescents with anxiety disorders, and provide the impetus for further investigation using randomized controlled designs in larger samples.