Differential effects of cranial electrotherapy stimulation on changes in anxiety and depression symptoms over time in patients with generalized anxiety disorder

Morriss, Richard; Price, Larry

Abstract

Background
Cranial electrotherapy stimulation (CES) is a safe and well-tolerated 6-12 week treatment that is clinically and cost effective on both anxiety and depression symptoms resulting in sustained remission of these symptoms at 12 and 24 weeks in generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) patients. The aim of the current report was to explore whether the effectiveness of CES was related to its effects on depression or anxiety over time

Methods
A consecutive sample of 161 eligible patients with GAD was recruited from two publicly funded services in England while they waited for individual cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) after failing to achieve remission on the GAD-7 with computerised CBT. They received 60 minutes per day Alpha-Stim CES for 6-12 weeks. Outcomes were changes in PHQ-9, GAD-7 score from baseline to 4, 6, 8, 12 and 24 weeks. Latent variable cross-lagged panel analysis permitted an analysis of the differential effects of anxiety and depression with CES treatment over time.

Results
Anxiety at baseline significantly predicted depression at week 4 (standardized regression weight = .40, p

Citation

Morriss, R., & Price, L. (2020). Differential effects of cranial electrotherapy stimulation on changes in anxiety and depression symptoms over time in patients with generalized anxiety disorder. Journal of Affective Disorders, 277, 785-788. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2020.09.006

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 1, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Sep 7, 2020
• Publication Date: 2020-12
• Deposit Date: Oct 30, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 8, 2021
• Journal: Journal of Affective Disorders
• Print ISSN: 0165-0327
• Electronic ISSN: 1573-2517
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 277
• Pages: 785-788
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2020.09.006
• Keywords: Clinical Psychology; Psychiatry and Mental health
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/5007632
• Publisher URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165032720327014
• Additional Information: This article is maintained by: Elsevier; Article Title: Differential effects of cranial electrotherapy stimulation on changes in anxiety and depression symptoms over time in patients with generalized anxiety disorder; Journal Title: Journal of Affective Disorders; CrossRef DOI link to publisher maintained version: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2020.09.006; Content Type: article; Copyright: © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.