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Updated: May 12, 2026
Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation and Simultaneous Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Published on: April 27, 2014
Treatments in context: transcranial direct current brain stimulation as a potential treatment in pediatric psychosis
Christopher N David1, Judith L Rapoport, Nitin Gogtay
1Child Psychiatry Branch, National Institute of Mental Health NIMH, National Institutes of Health NIH, Building 10, Room 3N202, 10 Center Drive, Bethesda, MD 20890, USA.
Insights
Childhood-onset schizophrenia is difficult to treat, with most pediatric patients retaining symptoms after medication. Transcranial direct current stimulation shows promise as a safe, effective add-on therapy for residual symptoms in these children.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Psychiatry
- Pediatric Medicine
Background:
- Childhood-onset schizophrenia (COS) is a severe, chronic psychiatric disorder.
- COS is often treatment-resistant, with over 70% of pediatric patients experiencing persistent psychotic symptoms and cognitive impairment despite optimized pharmacotherapy.
- Existing treatments like transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) show moderate efficacy in adults but are cumbersome for severely ill pediatric populations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) as a potential novel treatment modality for pediatric patients with schizophrenia.
- To evaluate the safety and efficacy of tDCS as an adjuvant therapy for residual symptoms in childhood-onset schizophrenia.
Main Methods:
- Review of recent literature on neuromodulation techniques for schizophrenia.
- Analysis of the potential application and limitations of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in pediatric populations.
- Assessment of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) as a viable alternative or adjunctive treatment.
Main Results:
- Pharmacotherapy is often insufficient for complete symptom remission in childhood-onset schizophrenia.
- Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has shown some efficacy in adults but presents practical challenges for severely ill children.
- Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is identified as a potentially safe and effective option for managing residual symptoms.
Conclusions:
- Novel treatment strategies are urgently needed for childhood-onset schizophrenia due to its chronic and treatment-resistant nature.
- Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) offers a promising, non-invasive approach to complement existing treatments for pediatric schizophrenia.
- Further research into tDCS for childhood-onset schizophrenia is warranted to establish its therapeutic role.
Abstract:
Childhood-onset schizophrenia is a chronic, severe form of schizophrenia, and is typically treatment resistant. Even after optimized pharmacotherapy, a majority (over 70%) of these pediatric patients present lasting psychotic symptoms and impaired cognition, necessitating the need for novel treatment modalities. Recent work in transcranial magnetic stimulation suggests moderate efficacy in symptom reduction in adult patients with schizophrenia; however, the transcranial magnetic stimulation treatment is cumbersome for this severely ill population. Transcranial direct current stimulation may provide a safe and effective adjuvant treatment for continued residual symptoms of schizophrenia.
