Lais Razza

Ghent University | UGhent · Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences

The tendency to ruminate (i.e., repetitive, self‐referential, negative thoughts) is a maladaptive form of emotional regulation and represents a transdiagnostic vulnerability factor for stress‐related psychopathology. Vagally‐mediated heart rate variability (vmHRV) provides a non‐invasive, surrogate measure of vagal modulation of the heart, and high...

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) presents mixed effects for major depressive disorder (MDD) symptoms, partially owing to a large inter-experimental variability in tDCS protocols and their correlated induced electric fields (E-fields). We investigated whether tDCS-induced E-field strength of distinct tDCS parameters was associated with...

The prefrontal cortex plays a crucial role in cognitive processes, both during anticipatory and reactive modes of cognitive control. Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) can modulate these cognitive resources. How- ever, there is a lack of research exploring the impact of tDCS on emotional material processing in the prefrontal cortex, par...

Non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) techniques have been increasingly used over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) to enhance working memory (WM) performance. Notwithstanding, NIBS protocols have shown either small or inconclusive cognitive effects on healthy and neuropsychiatric samples. Therefore, we assessed working memory performance...

Non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) interventions are promising for the treatment of psychiatric disorders. Notwithstanding, the NIBS mechanisms of action over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), a hub that modulates affective and cognitive processes, have not been completely mapped. We aimed to investigate regional cerebral blood flow (r...

Objective Although relatively costly and non-scalable, non-invasive neuromodulation interventions are treatment alternatives for neuropsychiatric disorders. The recent developments of highly-deployable transcranial electric stimulation (tES) systems, combined with mobile-Health technologies, could be incorporated in digital trials to overcome metho...

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a noninvasive brain stimulation modality, indicated for the treatment of diverse neuropsychiatric disorders, such as major depressive disorder (MDD). The procedure consists of the application of a weak electrical current to the brain, using sponge-covered and saline-humidified electrodes placed over...

Transcranial electrical stimulation (tES) comprises noninvasive neuromodulation techniques that deliver low-amplitude electrical currents to targeted brain regions with the goal of modifying neural activities. Expanding evidence from the past decade, specifically using transcranial direct current simulation and transcranial alternating current stim...

Cohort studies have displayed mixed findings on changes in mental symptoms severity in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak started. Network approaches can provide additional insights by analyzing the connectivity of such symptoms. We assessed the network structure of mental symptoms in the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Health (ELSA-Brasil)...

Introduction: Non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) as monotherapy has been increasingly used to enhance the activity of brain networks. However, it is unclear whether a combination of distinct NIBS approaches could enhance prefrontal cortical (PFC) activity. Objective: We propose to investigate the combined and standalone effects of two NIBS mo...

Importance The placebo effect in depression clinical trials is a substantial factor associated with failure to establish efficacy of novel and repurposed treatments. However, the magnitude of the placebo effect and whether it differs across treatment modalities in treatment-resistant depression (TRD) is unclear. Objective To examine the magnitude...

Aims The placebo response in depression clinical trials is a major contributing factor for failure to establish the efficacy of novel and repurposed treatments. However, it is not clear as to what the placebo response in treatment-resistant depression (TRD) patients is or whether it differs across treatment modalities. Our objective was to conduct...

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) is an effective treatment during the acute phase of a major depressive episode (MDE), although the evidence for its follow-up efficacy is mixed. A systematic review and meta-analysis were performed. MEDLINE/PubMed, Scopus (EMBASE), Web of Science, Cochrane Library and additional sources were searched f...

Background: There is mixed evidence on increasing rates of psychiatric disorders and symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. We evaluated pandemic-related psychopathology and psychiatry diagnoses and their determinants in the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Health (ELSA Brasil) Sao Paulo Research Center. Methods: Between pre-pandemic ELSA-Br...

Objective Research suggests that the combination of different non-invasive brain stimulation techniques, such as intermittent theta-burst stimulation (iTBS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), could enhance the effects of stimulation. Studies investigating the combination of tDCS and iTBS over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLP...

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive brain stimulation intervention investigated for the treatment of depression. Clinical results have been heterogeneous, partly due to the variability of electric field (EF) strength in the brain owing to interindividual differences in head anatomy. Therefore, we investigated whether EF...

Background Current therapies for the management of epilepsy are still suboptimal for several patients due to inefficacy, major adverse events, and unavailability. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), an emergent non-invasive neuromodulation technique, has been tested in epilepsy samples over the past two decades to reduce either seizure...

Introduction The high placebo response in depression treatment trials is a major contributing factor for randomised control trial failure to establish efficacy of novel or repurposed treatments in treatment-resistant depression (TRD) and major depressive disorder in general. Though there have been a number of meta-analyses and primary research stud...

Background Randomised clinical trials (RCTs) investigating transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) efficacy for depression show significant heterogeneity in outcomes. Objective To investigate the magnitude of the sham tDCS response and its potential moderators in the treatment of depression. Methodology A systematic review and aggregate me...

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a re-emerging non-invasive brain stimulation technique that has been used in animal models and human trials aimed to elucidate neurophysiology and behavior interactions. It delivers subthreshold electrical currents to neuronal populations that shift resting membrane potential either toward depolariz...

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a safe, effective treatment for major depressive disorder (MDD). While antidepressant effects are heterogeneous, no studies have investigated trajectories of tDCS response. We characterized distinct improvement trajectories and associated baseline characteristics for patients treated with prefrontal...

Electrical and magnetic brain stimulation techniques present distinct mechanisms and efficacy in the acute treatment of depression. This was an umbrella review of meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials of brain stimulation techniques for managing acute major depressive episodes. A systematic review was performed in the PubMed/MEDLINE databas...

Introduction Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a prevalent and debilitating condition. First-line treatments include antidepressants and cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy (CBT). However, several patients present treatment-resistance and/or adverse effects. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), a non-invasive neuromodulation technique, i...

Current first-line treatments for major depressive disorder (MDD) include pharmacotherapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy. However, one-third of depressed patients do not achieve remission after multiple medication trials, and psychotherapy can be costly and time-consuming. Although non-implantable neuromodulation (NIN) techniques such as transcra...

Background Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has shown mixed results for depression treatment. Objective To perform a systematic review and meta‐analysis of trials using tDCS to improve depressive symptoms. Methods A systematic review was performed from the first date available to January 06, 2020 in PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, a...

We evaluated the efficacy and acceptability of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) for treating acute depressive episodes using individual patient data that provide more precise estimates than aggregate data meta-analysis. A systematic review of placebo-controlled trials on tDCS as only intervention was conducted until December-2018. Dat...

Background: Cognitive deficits in major depressive disorder (MDD) are associated with low quality of life and higher suicide risk. Antidepressant drugs have modest to null effects in improving such deficits. Therefore, we investigated the cognitive effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), which is a promising antidepressant non-p...

Background The efficacy of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) as a continuation therapy for the maintenance phase of the depressive episode is low and insufficiently investigated in literature. We investigated whether it could be enhanced by using a more intensive treatment regimen compared to previous reports. Methods Twenty‐four pati...

Objective: Noninvasive brain stimulation (NIBS) techniques, such as transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), are increasingly being used to treat mental disorders, particularly major depression. The aim of this comprehensive review is to summarize the main advances, limitations, and pe...

Background Although several studies indicate that placebo response is large to antidepressant pharmacotherapy in major depressive disorder (MDD), no updated meta-analysis has quantified the magnitude of the placebo (sham) response to repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) in MDD yet. Objective To conduct a systematic review and meta...

Background We compared transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS) with a selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitor for the treatment of depression. Methods In a single-center, double-blind, noninferiority trial involving adults with unipolar depression, we randomly assigned patients to receive tDCS plus oral placebo, sham tDCS plus escitalopram,...

Importance: Although several strategies of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) have been investigated as treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD), their comparative efficacy and acceptability is unknown. Objective: To establish the relative efficacy and acceptability of the different modalities of rTMS used for MDD by perform...

Background: Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive brain stimulation investigated as a treatment for several neuropsychiatric disorders. Notwithstanding tDCS-induced adverse events (AEs) are considered to be low and transient, systematic review analyses on safety and tolerability of tDCS derive mostly from single-session...