ReviewFrontiers in neuroscience2015
Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in behavioral and food addiction: a systematic review of efficacy, technical, and methodological issues.
Review in Frontiers in neuroscience, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT03943979 (Pilot Study of an Intervention Involving Cognitive Training and Transcranial Direct-current Stimulation), which is not on this map. Cited by 33 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Pilot Study of an Intervention Involving Cognitive Training and Transcranial Direct-current Stimulation (tDCS) in Morbidly Obese Subjects
Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 76 citations in OpenAlex.
- Non-invasive Brain Stimulation for Gambling Disorder: A Systematic Review.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2020Pooled it
- Effects of Non-invasive Brain Stimulation on Stimulant Craving in Users of Cocaine, Amphetamine, or Methamphetamine: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2019Pooled it
- Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation to Improve the Dysfunction of Descending Pain Modulatory System Related to Opioids in Chronic Non-cancer Pain: An Integrative Review of Neurobiology and Meta-Analysis.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2019Pooled it
- Efficacy and safety of transcranial direct current stimulation in alcohol use disorder: A randomized controlled triple-blind trial.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2026Trial
- Effects of transcranial direct current stimulation of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex on craving and negative emotion regulation in individuals at risk for problematic pornography use: A double-blind, placebo-controlled study.Journal of behavioral addictions · 2025Trial
- Multisession transcranial direct current stimulation and aerobic exercise synergistically improve food craving symptoms, impulsivity, and cognitive flexibility in women with overweight and obesity: a randomized controlled trial.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2025Trial
- Both active and sham low-frequency rTMS single sessions over the right DLPFC decrease cue-induced cravings among pathological gamblers seeking treatment: A randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled crossover trial.Journal of behavioral addictions · 2018Trial
- Trial
- Modulation of fear extinction processes using transcranial electrical stimulation.Translational psychiatry · 2016Trial
- Trial
- Connectome-based predictive modelling of problematic gaming in youth from the ABCD study.Journal of behavioral addictions · 2026Article
- Research progress of tDCS in the treatment of ADHD.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2025Review
- Effectiveness of Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation (NIBS) in Overeating and Increased Body Mass Index (BMI): An Umbrella Review.Clinical neuropsychiatry · 2025Review
- Individual and group-level optimization of electric field in deep brain region during multichannel transcranial electrical stimulation.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2024Article
- Effectiveness of Physiotherapy in Managing Symptomatology in Gambling Disorder Patients: A Systematic Review.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Effects of Transcranial Electrical Stimulation on Gambling and Gaming: A Systematic Review of Studies on Healthy Controls, Participants with Gambling/Gaming Disorder, and Substance Use Disorder.Journal of clinical medicine · 2023Review
- A computational study on the optimization of transcranial temporal interfering stimulation with high-definition electrodes using unsupervised neural networks.Human brain mapping · 2023Article
- Ameliorating cognitive control in patients with binge eating disorder by electrical brain stimulation: study protocol of the randomized controlled ACCElect pilot trial.Journal of eating disorders · 2022Article
- Article
- Effects of transcranial direct current stimulation on addictive behavior and brain glucose metabolism in problematic online gamers.Journal of behavioral addictions · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesBehavioral addictions (BA) are complex disorders for which pharmacological and psychotherapeutic treatments have shown their limits. Non-invasive brain stimulation, among which transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), has opened up new perspectives in addiction treatment. The purpose of this work is to conduct a critical and systematic review of tDCS efficacy, and of technical and methodological considerations in the field of BA.
methodsA bibliographic search has been conducted on the Medline and ScienceDirect databases until December 2014, based on the following selection criteria: clinical studies on tDCS and BA (namely eating disorders, compulsive buying, Internet addiction, pathological gambling, sexual addiction, sports addiction, video games addiction). Study selection, data analysis, and reporting were conducted according to the PRISMA guidelines.
resultsOut of 402 potential articles, seven studies were selected. So far focusing essentially on abnormal eating, these studies suggest that tDCS (right prefrontal anode/left prefrontal cathode) reduces food craving induced by visual stimuli.
conclusionsDespite methodological and technical differences between studies, the results are promising. So far, only few studies of tDCS in BA have been conducted. New research is recommended on the use of tDCS in BA, other than eating disorders.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.