Study Background

Why are we doing this study?

Adolescent depression is common and disabling.

The most common treatments are antidepressant medications and talking therapies.

However, after a full course of treatment with antidepressant medication or psychotherapy, over one-third continue to be unwell.

As well, for many individuals, they would prefer to not take antidepressant medications or be involved in talking therapy. They would like more choices when it comes to treatment

Could I be experiencing adolescent depression?

Individuals with adolescent depression may experience:

  • Feeling sad or down or not enjoying things that they used to

  • Changes in appetite

  • Trouble sleeping

  • Lack of energy

  • Feeling hopeless or thinking about death or suicide

These changes may have lasted for a couple of weeks.

More information on adolescent depression is available on the NHS website:

NHS - Symptoms of Adolescent Depression in Adults

What evidence is there for transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS)?

Studies have shown that transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) could be a possible treatment for adults with major depression.

We and other researchers have carried out large reviews of many studies, called meta-analysis, to look at the overall effect of tDCS in adult depression. These studies show that people who receive active tDCS often show more improvement in their depression than those who receive inactive tDCS (Mutz et al., 2018, 2019).

Researchers have carried out reviews and meta-analyses to look at the overall safety of tDCS in youth and children. These studies show that tDCS could be a safe treatment for children and adolescents with mild and transient side effects (Buchanan et al., 2021; Gallop et al., 2024; Salehnejad et al., 2024).

In our clinical trial, we looked at providing tDCS at home for adult depression, and we found that people using home-based tDCS were more likely to show an improvement in their depressive symptoms with active tDCS than with inactive tDCS (Woodham et al., 2025).

Now we would like to see how it would be to provide acceptable and safe tDCS treatment for adolescent depression in their home in addition to their usual treatment.