New to tDCS? 5 Tips that will save you from headaches, shocks, and burns

I’ve been using tDCS for the past six months, and have had great results overall. But these results did not come without a price, so I’ve put down some tDCS Tips for Beginners that will save you from having a bad tDCS experience.

Tip #1 — Get a good device!

Beware of devices that look sleek, but might not provide the best results!

I started out with the foc.us v1 device, which was good enough to get a sense of how tDCS worked, but in the end, it was not designed for any well-researched montage. It generally stimulates the PFC, upregulating the left and downregulating the right. It turns out that an imbalance in favor of the left DLPFC can lead to an imbalance which may cause increased anger and aggression (study here). Since then, I’ve switched to a Transcranial Kit from trans-cranial.com, which has very reliable performance, and allows for easy electrode placements.

Update on 9/27/2015: foc.us has recently come out with a v2 device which allows for a much wider range of stimulation parameters and placements, which is a significant improvement over the original design concept.

Tip #2 — Don’t oversalt your sponges!

Make sure to wash your sponges after every use.

Saline sponges are the most common form of electrode available, and they seem to be the most simple and effective at this time. Saline is simply water with a bit of salt to help with the conductivity. The water will evaporate off the sponge, but the salt will remain, and will build up over time to the point at which there is too much sodium. This will result in overstimulation and headaches, which are no fun for anyone. You should also avoid using special electrode gel or cream, most of them were not designed for tDCS, but rather, EKG or EEG.

Tip #3 — Start slow to avoid burns and headaches

You might be eager to get started, but resist the urge to crank up the amps.

I’m the type that likes to jump in with both feet, but on my first day of tDCS, I did it at 1mA for 1 minute. I definitely felt the effects, and so that was enough for me for the first day. After that, I quickly ramped up to 1.5mA for 5 minutes, then 2mA for 10 minutes. I’ve had a number of friends try it, but I found that the initial session is the most sensitive, so be conservitive on your first few sessions, otherwise you might end up with a bad headache.

Also, tDCS should NEVER be painful, so if at any point you feel pain or even mild discomfort, you should stop the session, and try lowering the current. A few people from the tDCS Subreddit have gotten pretty bad burns on their forehead and arms from ignoring painful sensations. Finally, make sure you wipe down the skin before placing the electrode, especially if you use lotions that contain acid or other exfoliants.

Tip #4 — Know your target montages!

Always make sure you have the correct placement of the anode and cathode.

While placing the electrodes in the wrong place or mixing anode with cathode probably won’t kill you, you almost certainly won’t get the results you might be hoping for. To demonstrate this, I purposely switched the polarity of a commonly used montage for depression (i.e. I switched from anode F3 and cathode F4 to cathode F3 and anode F4). In effect, this would downregulate the left DLPFC and upregulate the right DLPFC, which is similar to what is observed in people who have major depressive disorder. I did this over a 3 day period at 2mA for 10 minutes. I ended up with headaches at F3, and started reacting very negatively to anything that happened. By the end of Day 3, I didn’t want to leave the house for fear of the terrible unknown shit that might befall me outside. At that point, I realized I was just being irrational because of the stimulation, and while I could smile and write things off, I couldn’t help feeling unbelievably sad about pretty much everything at the time. Interestingly, after stopping the experiment, I actually felt more upbeat than I had before starting the experiment. So perhaps this was an aftereffect of downregulating the left DLPFC, which forced it to have to work harder than it did before.

Tip #5 — Keep a journal

Be Mindful at all times of your goals for tDCS

I usually use tDCS in the morning, after breakfast. I make note of the montage I want to try, make notes on how I feel before and during the stimulation, then off to work. During the day, I’ll make mental notes of my mood, and how I react to things. At the end of the day, I’ll write down any mood or reaction I had that stood out as either very positive or negative. This will help you keep track of which montages seem to work best for you.

Edit: Previously, I had written about a montage I use for meditation, but thought it better to discuss this in greater detail in another post (forthcoming).

So that’s it for now, I hope this has been helpful, and I welcome your comments and questions. ☺