Clinical utility and tolerability of transcranial direct current stimulation in mild cognitive impairment

Neuromodulatory interventions like transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is emerging as a potential therapeutic strategy to promote cognitive function in healthy and pathological aging. There is need for more studies evaluating the utility and tolerability of tDCS in Mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Since MCI is considered as the prodromal stage of dementia, it has emerged as the most important target for intervention in dementia. This study investigated the feasibility, tolerability and clinical utility of tDCS in patients with MCI. In this observational study that included 11 patients with MCI, tDCS with an intensity of 2 mA and duration of 20 minutes per day was administered for 5 consecutive days with anode over left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and cathode over right supra orbital region. Treatment outcome was measured using picture memory impairment test (PMIT) immediately and also 1 month after the 5th session of tDCS All the patients tolerated tDCS sessions without any significant adverse effects. Stimulation of left DLPFC with tDCS was noted to significantly improve the immediate and delayed recall performance of the patients in PMIT after five days of stimulation and most of the benefits were persistent at one month follow up. This study findings suggests that tDCS is safe and potentially beneficial in combating cognitive deficits in patients with MCI and provides a framework for further studies with better methodology (randomized and sham controlled trial) to investigate the same.