Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (Tdcs) for Post- Stroke Anxiety and Depression Following Sars-Cov2 Infection and Neurocovid-19 Contraction

ABSTRACT

Background: Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is effective in the man-agement of patients with depression and anxiety. However, it is not known if it is effective in the case of anxiety and depression following SARS-CoV2 and NeuroCOVID-19 infection. The aim of this study was to determine the efficacy of stimulating the brain with the use of a tDCS protocol ameliorated by a functional neuromarker, and here based on HBI methodology to reduce anxiety and depression following SARS-CoV2 infection and NeuroCOVID-19 contraction.Case study A 47-year-old patient manifested severe anxiety and depression following a stroke following SARS-CoV2 infection and Neuro-COVID-19 contraction. The anxiety and depression were diagnosed using the HAD-Scale (Zigmond, Snaith 1983). A score of 8 to 10 is broad ly accepted as indicating mild symptoms, a score between 11-16 suggests moderate anxiety or depression, and a score of 16 or more indicates severe anxiety or depressive symptoms. The patient received anodal tDCS to the left DLPFC using two different applica-tion protocols. Initially, a stimulation session of 2 milliamperes (mA) intensity for 20 minutes was administered every working day for 2 weeks. After 3 weeks, she subsequently received 7 daily sessions of periodic stimulations of an intensity of 2 mA for 13 minutes each with 20 minutes inter-session intervals for 1 week. It was found that tDCS delivered via the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) was effective in the reduction of post-stroke anxiety and depression following SARS-CoV2 infection and NeuroCOVID-19 contraction. Immediately follow-ing the final session of the initial protocol of stimulation, the Had Score was reduced for anxiety from 18 to 6 points, and for depression from 17 to 5 points and the symptoms disappeared.Conclusions: The HBI methodology allowed for the detection of a functional neu-romarker of anxiety and depression and the development of a tDCS protocol. It was found that tDCS delivered via the dorsolateral pre-frontal cortex (DLPFC) was effective in the reduction of post-stroke anxiety and depression following SARS-CoV2 infection and Neu-roCOVID-19 contraction.