[The use of noninvasive brain stimulation in childhood psychiatric disorders: new diagnostic and therapeutic opportunities and challenges]

Abstract

Novel diagnostic and therapeutic approaches based on noninvasive brain stimulation offer some promise in the field of childhood psychiatric disorders. There are two primary methods of noninvasive brain stimulation currently available: transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). Both noninvasive neuromodulation techniques appear to rely on modulating brain plasticity and thus open new hopes in the treatment of brain circuit and plasticity disorders. Since many childhood psychiatric disorders involve disturbances in the timing or mechanisms of plasticity within frontostriatal circuits, and the developing brain shows a greater capacity of brain plasticity, noninvasive brain stimulation might induce greater benefits in this population than in adults. Although the utilization of TMS and tDCS remains limited in children, there is enough evidence for their rational, safe use in this population. In this paper, we review the principles of noninvasive brain stimulation and the diagnostic and therapeutic applications in child-hood psychiatric disorders in order to inform its development into safe and reliable diagnostic and effective therapeutic approaches in pediatric psychiatry.

© 2011 Revista de Neurología