Open AccessFirst case report of tDCS efficacy in severe chemsex addiction
Author(s) -
Léo Malandain,
Jean-Victor Blanc,
Florian Ferreri,
Timothée Giorgiadis,
Sophie Mosser,
Stéphane Mouchabac,
Florence Thibaut
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
dialogues in clinical neuroscience
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.11
H-Index - 87
eISSN - 1958-5969
pISSN - 1294-8322
DOI - 10.31887/dcns.2020.22.3/lmalandain
Subject(s) - craving , addiction , incentive salience , prefrontal cortex , transcranial direct current stimulation , psychology , dorsolateral prefrontal cortex , psychiatry , medicine , stimulation , salience (neuroscience) , neuroscience , brain stimulation , clinical psychology , audiology , cognition
Chemsex is an escalating public health issue among men who have sex with men, with potentially severe somatic and psychiatric consequences. Given the limited knowledge and lack of treatment recommendations available in this area, we proposed the use of noninvasive brain stimulation in order to reduce problematic chemsex behavior. This is the first open-label case report of a positive effect of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in a patient who was complaining of severe chemsex addiction. Total disappearance of chemsex behavior occurred after 5 days of daily sessions of right prefrontal cortex stimulation and did not return after 8 months of follow-up. The strengthening of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activity may have modulated limbic pathways and reduced incentive salience and craving of both sexual addiction and concomitant illicit drug use.
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