Background: Existing treatments for substance use disorders are often subject to drop-out or relapse. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) possibly has a positive effect on this problem.
Aim: To give an updated qualitative review of existing studies investigating the clinical effects of transcranial direct current stimulation for people with a substance use disorder, considering the many recently published studies.
Method: Extensive literature search in the electronic database PubMed. We included 43 studies on top of the 7 studies already included in the previous review of Herremans and Baeken (2017) in this journal.
Results: The majority of the studies showed a positive effect of transcranial direct current stimulation on clinical measures as craving and abstinence. However, there was little uniformity in used protocols.
Conclusion: Transcranial direct current stimulation can be an effective treatment for people with a substance use disorder. Optimal parameters need to be established to make the treatment maximally effective and adapted to the individual patient.