Schizophrenia is a severe neuropsychiatric disorder characterized by delusions, hallucinations, behavioral symptoms, and cognitive deficits. Roughly, 70%-80% of schizophrenia patients experience auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs), with 25%-30% demonstrating resistance to conventional antipsychotic medications. Studies suggest a promising role for add-on transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in the treatment of medication-refractory AVHs. The mechanisms through which tDCS could be therapeutic in such cases are unclear, but possibly involve neuroplastic effects. In recent years, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) has been used successfully to study tDCS-induced neuroplastic changes. In a double-blind, sham-controlled design, we applied fNIRS to measure task-dependent cerebral blood flow (CBF) changes as a surrogate outcome of single session tDCS-induced effects on neuroplasticity in a schizophrenia patient with persistent auditory hallucinations. The observations are discussed in this case report.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ETSU/oai:dc.etsu.edu:etsu-works-11827 |
| Date | 01 September 2017 |
| Creators | Taylor, S. Trevor, Chhabra, Harleen, Sreeraj, Vanteemar S., Shivakumar, Venkataram, Kalmady, Sunil V., Venkatasubramanian, Ganesan |
| Publisher | Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University |
| Source Sets | East Tennessee State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Source | ETSU Faculty Works |
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