The remotely supervised transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) protocol provides a method for safe and reliable delivery of tDCS for clinical studies in MS and expands patient access to tDCS, a recent study found. Since repeated sessions of tDCS are necessary to adequately evaluate therapeutic effect, it is not feasible for many MS patients to visit a clinic for treatment on a daily basis, according to researchers. In addition, clinic delivery is also associated with substantial cost. In order to test the feasibility of the remotely supervised protocol, researchers targeted 10 treatment sessions across 2 weeks, monitoring 20 participants diagnosed with MS, aged 30 to 69 years, with a range of disability. They found:

• Protocol adherence exceeded what has been observed in studies with clinic-based treatment delivery, with all but 1 participant (95%) completing at least 8 of the 10 sessions.

• Across a total of 192 supervised treatment sessions, no session required discontinuation and no adverse events were reported.

• The most common side effects were itching/tingling at the electrode site.

Citation: Kasschau M, Reisner J, Sherman K, Bikson M, Datta A, Charvet LE. Transcranial direct current stimulation is feasible for remotely supervised home delivery in multiple sclerosis. [Published online ahead of print April 18, 2016]. Neuromodulation. doi:10.1111/ner.12430.