Journal of Addiction Research & Therapy
Open Access

Research Article

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) Therapy for Major Depressive Disorder in the HIV Population: A Safe, Effective Noninvasive Promising Treatment as Compared to Conventional Antidepressant Therapy

¹Nassau University Medical Center, USA

²Foundation University Medical College, Pakistan

³Saint Vincent’s Medical Center Transplant Research Institute, California

⁴Yale University PET Center, Connecticut

⁵FMH College of Medicine and Dentistry

⁶Jinnah Sindh Medical University, Pakistan

⁷Liaquat Medical and Dentistry College, Pakistan

⁸Brookdale University Hospital, NY, USA

⁹Tver State Academy, Russia

¹⁰King County Hospital, NY, USA

¹¹Dr.Rajendra Prasad Government Medical College, India

¹²Howard University Hospital, Washington DC, USA

¹³Baqai Medical University, Pakistan

Corresponding Author:

Saeed Ahmed, MD
Nassau University Medical Center, USA
Tel: 93298445854
E-mail: ahmedsaeedmd@gmail.com

Received date: August 25, 2015; Accepted date: September 14, 2015; Published date: September 20, 2015

Citation: Ahmed S, Hussain M, Manzoor H, Sreeram V, Dar S, et al. (2015) Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) Therapy for Major Depressive Disorder in the HIV Population: A Safe, Effective Noninvasive Promising Treatment as Compared to Conventional Antidepressant Therapy. J Addict Res Ther 6:241. doi:10.4172/2155-6105.1000241

Copyright: © 2015 Ahmed S, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is one of the most prevalent psychiatric disorders in the HIV-positive population. For long periods of time, MDD has been treated with conventional antidepressant therapy in these patients. Novel Antidepressant Therapy for Major Depression in HIV-infected adults is associated with various side effects such as sleep disturbance, nervousness, insomnia, weight loss, and sexual dysfunction that could lead to non-adherence to antiretroviral therapy. To uphold compliance and prevent patients from serious adverse effects of antidepressant therapy; emerging noninvasive innovative transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) could serve as a better alternative. tDCS has shown promising results; it is an effective, safe therapeutic strategy with an immediate onset of action as compared to conventional SSRI therapy. The application of tDCS is an easy one and the device for conducting this treatment modality is highly portable. Along with its convenient application, subjects who have been treated with tDCS in study settings, found it tolerable with minimum discomfort and without developing chronic and profound adverse effects. The role of transcranial direct current stimulation therapy is not limited to addressing solely the depressive component in the MDD population; however, it could be critical in assisting these patients by combating their co-morbidities of alcoholism and substance abuse by decreasing their cravings. Furthermore, tDCS has proven itself in improving the cognition in this patient population. This paper will further review this innovative treatment option and will also suggest tDCS to be studied in larger clinical trials as it could serve a huge role in developing better understanding of patient experiences regarding its tolerability, safety, and efficacy. Similarly, it will also provide important evidence to clinicians for the development of better practices in this area.

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