Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) as an intervention to improve empathic abilities and reduce violent behavior in forensic offenders: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial
Abstract
Background: Recent studies show that changes in one of the brain areas related to empathic abilities (i.e. the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC)) plays an important role in violent behavior in abusers of alcohol and cocaine. According to the models of James Blair, empathy is a potential inhibitor of violent behavior. Individuals with less empathic abilities may be less susceptible and motivated to inhibit violent behavior, which causes a higher risk of violence. Recent neuroscientific research shows that modulating (stimulation or inhibition) certain brain areas could be a promising new intervention for substance abuse and to reduce violent behavior, such as the neurostimulation technique transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). This study aims to investigate tDCS as an intervention to increase empathic abilities and reduce violent behavior in forensic substance use offenders.
Methods/design: A total sample of 50 male forensic substance abuse patients (25 active and 25 sham stimulation) will be tested in a double-blind placebo-controlled study, from which half of the patients will receive an active stimulation plus treatment as usual (TAU) and the other half will receive sham stimulation (placebo) plus TAU. The patients in the active condition will receive multichannel tDCS targeting the bilateral vmPFC two times a day for 20 min for five consecutive days. Before and after the stimulation period, the patients will complete self-report measurements, perform the…
How strong is the evidence?
Evidence Hub reads this as a randomized trial, done in people. Its evidence level is 2 of 5 (High · randomized trial). Randomized trials of a reasonable size are the strongest single-study design.
Read the paper
Related studies
- The neurocircuitry of addiction: an overview
- Gender Differences in Human Brain: A Review
- Stratified medicine for mental disorders
- The neurobiology of drug addiction: cross-species insights into the dysfunction and recovery of the prefrontal cortex
- Annual Research Review: DNA methylation as a mediator in the association between risk exposure and child and adolescent psychopathology
- Schizophrenia: The new etiological synthesis
Go deeper in Evidence Hub
Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.