Journal of Clinical Physiotherapy Research

Abstract

Background and Aims: Hearing loss is a common disorder and out of every thousand children born, 2 to 3 children are born with moderate to severe hearing loss for various reasons. This problem, regardless of culture and communities, increases the challenge and hardship in families. Over time, hearing loss leads to anxiety, depression, isolation and loneliness in the individual and his family. If left untreated, hearing loss can become a psychological complication in the individual and his family. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of transcranial Direct Current Stimulationon working memory and depression in mothers with deaf children.

Materials and Methods:In this quasi-experimental study with pre-test and post-test, 40 mothers with children with hearing problems in Yazd city were randomly selected from the available 20 of them in the experimental and 20 people were in the control group. Beck Depression Inventory (1988) and working memory scores were compared by n-back test before and after treatment. In the control group, each patient received 10 sessions of dummy electrical stimulation (20 minutes) and in the experimental group received 10 sessions of simultaneous anodic and cathodal stimulation (2 mA - 20 minutes) in the left and right dorsal peripheral cortex, respectively. Data analysis was performed using analysis of covariance.

Results: Data analysis showed that the scores of depression and working memory tests in mothers with children with hearing impairment immediately after active treatment (P = 0.01) compared with the control group with dummy electrical stimulation, respectively. Significance has decreased and increased.

Conclusion:According to the results of this study, it seems that direct electrical stimulation in the Dorsal Lateral Prefrontal Cortex increases the ability of working memory and improves depression in mothers with children with hearing problems and can be used in the rehabilitation program of these patients.

Keywords:transcranial Direct Current Stimulation, depression, working memory, mothers with children with hearing problems.