Brain Stimulation for Psychiatric Disorders: Emerging Evidence and New Perspectives

Dear Colleagues,

Currently, several non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) techniques are available for clinical application in psychiatric disorders (including major depressive disorder, obsessive-compulsive-disorder) or are under investigation (including schizophrenia, eating, substance use and neurodevelopmental disorders). NIBS includes Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) and transcranial Electrical Stimulation (tES). Additionally, Magnetic Seizure Therapy (MST) is a non-invasive seizure therapy that is attracting great interest due to its better tolerability and safety profiles compared to electroconvulsive therapy.

While these interventions seem to improve clinical features including cognition and behavioral manifestations, for most of psychiatric disorders the evidence is often heterogeneous, so further demonstrations of efficacy are needed to produce firm guidelines.

This Special issue invites researchers to present brand-new studies on the clinical applications of NIBS interventions in psychiatric disorders to improve clinical features, especially the cognitive dimension. Results from translational research, clinical trial, open-label studies, case reports, protocol studies, reviews or meta-analyses are welcome. Moreover, to improve acknowledges on the neurobiology of these disorders, studies combining NIBS with functional neuroimaging, Event-related-Potential (ERP) paradigms or with electroencephalography (EEG) are welcome. Additionally, studies that further elucidate NIBS mechanism of action and on modeling stimulation parameters (e.g. brand-new strategy including accelerated protocols or High-Definition tDCS) or studies that combine NIBS with psychological treatments or use NIBS as augmentative strategy to the ongoing treatments will be considered of interest.

Dr. Stefano Barlati
Dr. Jacopo Lisoni
Guest Editors

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