Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive brain stimulation method that has shown promising results in various neuropsychiatric disorders in adults. This review addresses the therapeutic use of tDCS in children and adolescents including safety, ethical, and legal considerations. There are several studies addressing the dosage of tDCS in children and adolescents by computational modeling of electric fields in the pediatric brain. Results suggest halving the amperage used in adults to obtain the same peak electric fields, however, there are some studies reporting on the safe application of tDCS with standard adult parameters in children (2 mA; 20-30 min). There are several randomized placebo controlled trials suggesting beneficial effects of tDCS for the treatment of cerebral palsy. For dystonia there are mixed data. Some studies suggest efficacy of tDCS for the treatment of refractory epilepsy, and for the improvement of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and autism. Interestingly, there is a lack of data for the treatment of childhood and adolescent psychiatric disorders, i.e., childhood onset schizophrenia and affective disorders. Overall, tDCS seems to be safe in pediatric population. More studies are needed to confirm the preliminary encouraging results; however, ethical deliberation has to be weighed carefully for every single case.

Objective. Obesity has been linked to psychiatric disorders in several studies. Prevalence and severity of psychiatric disorders are high in patients undergoing bariatric surgery. Thus, psychiatric assessment of bariatric surgery candidates has become a standard procedure. However, socially desirable responding leads to biased results in self-reported questionnaires. Here, bariatric surgery candidates were screened with the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-D) additionally to the psychiatric examination. Method. 355 bariatric surgery candidates filled in the PHQ-D before the psychiatric examination as a part of the surgery assessment procedure. PHQ-D results were compared to psychiatric diagnoses and body mass index (BMI). Results. Gender ratio, mean BMI, and age were comparable to earlier studies. Depressive and somatization symptoms did not correlate to BMI. However, females showed higher prevalence of psychiatric disorders with elevated syndrome severity in depressive and somatization disorders, as well as more frequent antidepressant intake. Eating disorders and addiction disorders were rarely reported. Conclusion. The findings suggest a socially desirable responding when filling in the PHQ-D before bariatric surgery. The use of the PHQ-D in this patient sample could be augmented by psychometric tests with internal correction and validation scales. Furthermore, psychiatric examination should be separated from the surgery evaluation process.