• Robert Suchting, Antonio L Teixeira, Brian Ahn, Gabriela D Colpo, Juyoung Park, and Hyochol Ahn.
• UTHealth McGovern Medical School, Faillace Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX.
• Clin J Pain. 2021 Dec 1; 37 (12): 898903898-903.

ObjectivesPrevious work has shown effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on clinical pain measures, qualitative sensory testing measures, and peripheral inflammation. The present report extends this research to investigate the effect of tDCS on brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels.Materials And MethodsThis secondary analysis examined a sample of 40 older adults (50 to 70 y old) with symptomatic knee osteoarthritis randomly assigned in a 1:1 fashion to active (n=20) or sham (n=20) tDCS for 20 minutes on 5 consecutive days. BDNF was measured before the first session and after the final treatment session. Generalized linear modeling evaluated BDNF plasma levels as a function of tDCS group, adjusted for baseline. Bayesian statistical inference was used to quantify the probability that effects of the treatment exist.ResultsGeneralized linear modeling indicated a 90.4% posterior probability that the sham condition had 49.9% higher BDNF at the end of treatment, controlling for baseline. Follow-up analyses within the active TDCS group supported an association between change in BDNF and change in clinical pain, and exploratory analyses found an effect of tDCS on irisin.DiscussionResults indicated that tDCS could be a potential nonpharmacological treatment to decrease BDNF levels, which may in turn decrease pain. This study adds to a growing literature suggesting that tDCS affects cortical excitability, and consequentially, the neural circuits implicated in pain modulation. In addition to a direct connection to analgesia, BDNF changes may reflect tDCS-induced changes in different cortical areas and/or neural circuits.Copyright © 2021 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.

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