HD-tDCS as a neurorehabilitation technique for a case of post-anoxic leukoencephalopathy.
Sarah Garcia, Benjamin M Hampstead
PMID 33208043WHAT IT FOUND
A single patient with rare brain damage from oxygen deprivation showed improved memory, fluency, and daily function after 29 sessions of brain stimulation.
However, these cognitive gains vanished ten weeks after treatment stopped, suggesting any benefit is temporary without ongoing sessions.
Key findings
01The patient showed significant improvement in delayed memory, visuospatial skills, and semantic fluency immediately after the treatment period.
02Cognitive test performance returned to baseline levels ten weeks after the final stimulation session.
03Informants reported that improvements in daily functioning, such as independent household chores and social appropriateness, persisted at follow-up despite the loss of objective cognitive gains.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
This is a single case report, so the results cannot be generalized to other patients. There was no control group, blinding, or randomization, making it impossible to rule out placebo effects or natural variability. Objective cognitive gains were not sustained at the 10-week follow-up, raising questions about the long-term efficacy of the protocol. The rarity of post-anoxic leukoencephalopathy makes large-scale studies difficult to conduct.
Declared interests
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume this treatment provides lasting cognitive recovery. The objective improvements in memory and fluency disappeared entirely ten weeks after the stimulation stopped, meaning any clinical benefit appears to require ongoing maintenance sessions rather than a finite course of treatment.