The non-invasive brain or nerve stimulation treatment did not increase seizure frequency in patients with epilepsy: A network meta-analysis

The noninvasive brain and nerve stimulation (NIBNS) treatments had been widely applied in numerous psychiatric diseases. They exerted preferable efficacy and had been considered as an alternative or add-on treatment to the traditional pharmacotherapy. However, the risk of complication of seizure had seized the clinicians so that they feared about this potential complication. Actually, the NIBNS techniques have emerged as an alternative adjunctive treatment method for patients with epilepsy. However, the results of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) investigating the ability of NIBNS to reduce the frequency of seizures have been inconclusive. The aim of the current network meta-analysis (NMA) was to compare the efficacy and acceptability of various NIBNS techniques for reducing the frequency of seizures in patients with epilepsy. This frequentist model-based NMA included RCTs of NIBNS techniques for patients with epilepsy. The primary outcomes were seizure frequency change and acceptability (i.e., dropout rate). This NMA of 20 RCTs indicated that only 2-mA cathodal short-duration transcranial direct current stimulation (hc-sd-c-tDCS) was associated with significantly greater reduction in seizure frequency and significantly greater improvement in quality of life than the sham/control. Further, none of the investigated NIBNS techniques had significantly increased seizure frequency compared with the sham/control. In addition, all the investigated NIBNS techniques were associated with similar acceptability with the sham/control. Our results indicated that none of the investigated NIBNS techniques was associated with an increased risk of epileptic seizure.