RCT of At-Home tDCS for Depression in Pregnancy

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a brain stimulation technique for the treatment of depression that has great potential for filling the gap in treatment options for moderate and severe depression in pregnancy. Participants are randomized 1:1 to active tDCS treatment or sham control. After at least one in-person training session with the research team, participants take the tDCS device home and self-administer 30-minute treatments 5 times per week, for 3 weeks, for a total of 15 sessions. Rater-administered and self-report outcomes are collected weekly during the 3-week active treatment phase, every 4 weeks during pregnancy, and at 4-, 12-, 26- and 52-weeks postpartum. A mixed methods process evaluation is embedded into the trial.