Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 17, 2025
08:53
Randomized, Triple-Blind, and Parallel-Controlled Trial of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation for Cognitive Rehabilitation after Stroke
Published on: June 6, 2025
515
Augmenting the unified protocol with transcranial direct current stimulation: Effects on emotion regulation and
Farzad Nasiri1,2, Kristen K Ellard3, Ali Mashhadi2
1Department of psychology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Iran.
Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy
|December 12, 2022
Summary
Combining the Unified Protocol (UP) with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) significantly improved emotion regulation and executive functions in patients with generalized anxiety and major depressive disorders compared to UP alone.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Psychiatry
- Clinical Psychology
Background:
- Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) often co-occur, leading to significant emotion regulation and executive control deficits.
- Transdiagnostic treatments aim to address shared emotional dysregulation mechanisms across disorders.
- Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is an emerging neuromodulatory technique explored for psychiatric conditions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare the efficacy of the Unified Protocol for transdiagnostic treatment of emotional disorders (UP) combined with tDCS (UP+tDCS) versus UP alone for individuals with GAD and comorbid MDD.
- To assess the impact of UP+tDCS and UP on emotion regulation and executive functions, including reappraisal, suppression, inhibition, and working memory.
Main Methods:
- A randomized controlled trial involving 43 individuals with GAD and comorbid MDD.
- Participants were assigned to three groups: UP+tDCS, UP alone, or a wait-list control.
- Assessments of emotion regulation and executive functions were conducted at baseline, post-treatment, and 3-month follow-up.
Main Results:
- Both UP+tDCS and UP alone significantly improved emotion regulation and working memory, and reduced suppression and inhibition compared to the wait-list control.
- UP+tDCS demonstrated significantly greater improvements in emotion regulation, cognitive reappraisal, inhibition, and working memory compared to UP alone at both post-treatment and follow-up.
- These benefits were sustained at the 3-month follow-up assessment.
Conclusions:
- The combination of UP treatment with tDCS appears to be an efficacious intervention for enhancing emotion regulation and executive functions in patients with GAD and comorbid MDD.
- Adding tDCS to the UP may offer superior therapeutic benefits over the UP alone for these cognitive and emotional domains.
- This study provides evidence for the potential of combined neuromodulation and psychotherapy for complex emotional disorders.
