Efficacy and Mechanism of Augmentation of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy With Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation(tACS) for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

The active tACS +ERP referred to a period of tACS applied in the first 20 minutes of the ERP treatment (the tACS device was activated when ERP began and deactivated automatically while ERP continued). The total treatment phase lasted eight weeks and included ten sessions with experienced psychotherapists following a specific manual for the tACS+ERP treatment. Based on the EEG parameters, individualized modeling was conducted to determine specific stimulation parameter schemes (stimulation frequency). Anode electrode will be localized in front of the mPFC on the Fz point according to the EEG international reference. Four cathode electrodes will be placed around (i.e. AFz, Fcz, F1, F2).

Patients will get the same CBT setting as the active tACS group and they were applied the sham tACS cocurrently with ERP. The sham tACS device is the same as the active comparator's except that the sham tACS will only deliver a current stimulation for the first and last 15 seconds in order to produce somatic sensation in patients similar to that induced by the active tACS.