Trial reportTrials2016
Efficacy of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in reducing consumption in patients with alcohol use disorders: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.
Trial report in Trials, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT02505126 (A Randomized Double-blind Clinical Trial on the Efficacy of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation), which is not on this map. Cited by 6 papers.
What it found
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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.
A Randomized Double-blind Clinical Trial on the Efficacy of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) in Reducing Alcohol Consumption in Non-abstinent Patients With Alcohol Use Disorder
Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 20 citations in OpenAlex.
- Efficacy and safety of transcranial direct current stimulation in alcohol use disorder: A randomized controlled triple-blind trial.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2026Trial
- Frontal tDCS reduces alcohol relapse rates by increasing connections from left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex to addiction networks.Brain stimulationTrial
- Identification of risk variants and cross-disorder pleiotropy through multi-ancestry genome-wide analysis of alcohol use disorder.Nature. Mental health · 2025Article
- Non-invasive brain stimulation paradigms in treatment of alcohol use disorder: Systematic review and network meta-analysis protocol.PloS one · 2025Article
- Effects of tDCS on reward responsiveness and valuation in Parkinson's patients with impulse control disorders.Journal of neurology · 2022Article
- History of Alcohol Consumption and HIV Status Related to Functional Connectivity Differences in the Brain During Working Memory Performance.Current HIV research · 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
12 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundApproximately 15 million persons in the European Union and 10 million persons in the USA are alcohol-dependent. The global burden of disease and injury attributable to alcohol is considerable: worldwide, approximately one in 25 deaths in 2004 was caused by alcohol. At the same time, alcohol use disorders remain seriously undertreated. In this context, alternative or adjunctive therapies such as brain stimulation may play a prominent role. The early results of studies using transcranial direct current stimulation found that stimulations delivered to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex result in a significant reduction of craving and an improvement of the decision-making processes in various additive disorders. We, therefore, hypothesize that transcranial direct current stimulation can lead to a decrease in alcohol consumption in patients suffering from alcohol use disorders. METHODS/
designWe report the protocol of a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group trial, to evaluate the efficacy of transcranial direct current stimulation on alcohol reduction in patients with an alcohol use disorder. The study will be conducted in 14 centers in France and Monaco. Altogether, 340 subjects over 18 years of age and diagnosed with an alcohol use disorder will be randomized to receive five consecutive twice-daily sessions of either active or placebo transcranial direct current stimulation. One session consists in delivering a current flow continuously (anode F4; cathode F3) twice for 13 minutes, with treatments separated by a rest interval of 20 min. Efficacy will be evaluated using the change from baseline (alcohol consumption during the 4 weeks before randomization) to 24 weeks in the total alcohol consumption and number of heavy drinking days. Secondary outcome measures will include alcohol craving, clinical and biological improvements, and the effects on mood and quality of life, as well as cognitive and safety assessments, and, for smokers, an assessment of the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation on tobacco consumption. DISCUSSION: Several studies have reported a beneficial effect of transcranial direct current stimulation on substance use disorders by reducing craving, impulsivity, and risk-taking behavior, and suggest that transcranial direct current stimulation may be a promising treatment in addiction. However, to date, no studies have included sufficiently large samples and sufficient follow-up to confirm the hypothesis. Results from this large randomized controlled trial will give a better overview of the therapeutic potential of transcranial direct current stimulation in alcohol use disorders.
trial registrationClinical Trials Gov, NCT02505126 (registration date: July 15 2015).
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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.