Nonpharmacological biological interventions for emotional and cognitive dysfunction

Abstract

Nonpharmacological biological interventions for emotional and cognitive dysfunction extensively reviews the effects of stimulation-based therapies including electroconvulsive therapy, transcranial magnetic stimulation, and transcranial direct current stimulation on affective cognition. Several types and protocols of neurostimulation interventions can influence affective information-processing in patients with depression. For example, there is some evidence to suggest that electroconvulsive therapy increases the expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor and therefore induces neuroplasticity. The chapter identifies several types and protocols of neurostimulation interventions with the ability to influence affective information-processing in patients with major depressive disorder. It discusses current research on stimulation-based therapies and highlights the need for further research on whether these protocol variations can counterbalance negative biases and whether they are causally involved in the clinical effects of the different treatments.