Increasing resilience to stress by home-based transcranial stimulation.

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychiatry
• Preventive Medicine

Background:

• Mental health disorders like anxiety and depression impact globally, with chronic stress as a key factor.
• Limited access to care necessitates scalable, preventive interventions for mental well-being.
• The left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (L-DLPFC) is a potential target for interventions aimed at stress resilience.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the feasibility and safety of a Home-Based transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (HB-tDCS) protocol.
• To explore the preliminary effects of HB-tDCS on stress resilience in healthy middle-aged adults.
• To evaluate the impact of HB-tDCS on stress appraisal, anxiety, and psychophysiological stress markers.

Main Methods:

• Thirty-one healthy middle-aged adults self-administered ten HB-tDCS sessions over two weeks, with remote monitoring.
• High adherence (98%) and minimal adverse events were recorded, indicating good tolerability.
• A stress induction paradigm using pupillometry, electrodermal activity (EDA), and subjective ratings assessed pre- and post-intervention effects.

Main Results:

• HB-tDCS demonstrated high feasibility and safety, with no serious adverse events reported.
• A significant reduction in acute stress appraisal was observed post-intervention.
• No significant changes were found in subjective anxiety scores or physiological stress markers (pupillometry, EDA).

Conclusions:

• HB-tDCS is a feasible and safe self-administered intervention for healthy adults.
• The protocol shows potential for reducing acute stress appraisal, warranting further investigation.
• Controlled trials and longer protocols are recommended to confirm efficacy and explore clinical applications for stress vulnerability.