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Effects of Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation on Alzheimer’s Disease

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Abstract

Background

Previous meta-analyses did not explore the immediate and long-term effect of non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) on different cognitive domains in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The meta-analysis aimed to assess the therapy effect of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on different cognitive domains in AD in randomized controlled trials (RCTs).

Methods

Studies published before December 2021 and exploring therapy effect of rTMS, tDCS on different cognitive domains in AD were searched in the following databases: PubMed and Web of Science. We used STATA 12.0 software to compute the standard mean difference (SMD) and a 95% confidence interval (CI).

Results

The present study included 16 articles (including 372 AD patients treated with rTMS and 310 treated with sham rTMS) for rTMS and 11 articles (including 152 AD patients treated with tDCS and 134 treated with sham tDCS) for tDCS. The present study showed better immediate and long-term general cognitive function increase effects in AD given rTMS, compared to those given sham rTMS with random effects models (immediate effect: SMD = 2.07, 95% CI = 0.37 to 3.77, I2 = 97.8%, p < 0.001; long-term effect: SMD = 5.04, 95% CI = 2.25 to 7.84, I2 = 97.8%, p < 0.001). The present study showed no significant immediate and long-term effects of rTMS on attention, executive, language and memory functions. In addition, the present study showed no significant difference in immediate or long-term effects of tDCS on general cognitive function, attention, language or memory functions between tDCS group and sham tDCS group.

Conclusions

RTMS was an effective treatment technique for general cognitive function in AD, whereas tDCS showed no significant therapy effect on cognitive function in AD. More large-scale studies were essential to explore the effect of NIBS on various cognitive function in AD.

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Funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81901108). In addition, this study was supported by the Doctoral Fund for Entrepreneurship and Innovation of Jiangsu Province and the Nanjing Municipal Health Science and Technology Development Special Fund Project (No. YKK19161).

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  1. Department of Neurology, Affiliated ZhongDa Hospital, School of Medicine, Southeast University, No. 87 Dingjiaqiao Road, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China, 210009

    Lihua Gu, H. Xu & F. Qian

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  1. Lihua Gu
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Correspondence to Lihua Gu.

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How to cite this article: L. Gu, H. Xu, F. Qian. Effects of Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation on Alzheimer’s Disease. J Prev Alz Dis 2022;3(9):410-424; https://doi.org/10.14283/jpad.2022.40

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Gu, L., Xu, H. & Qian, F. Effects of Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation on Alzheimer’s Disease. J Prev Alzheimers Dis 9, 410–424 (2022). https://doi.org/10.14283/jpad.2022.40

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