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Non-invasive Brain Stimulation and Cognitive Processing in Depression

NCT01875419 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 30

Last updated 2018-05-09

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Depression is a serious mental health problem that affects millions. Depression is usually treated using drugs and/or psychotherapy, but neither approach is successful for everyone, and some people do not respond to either. Therefore it is crucial that we continue to seek new methods for treating depression, and develop enhancements to existing treatments. In recent years, trials have documented improvements in depressive symptoms using noninvasive brain stimulation techniques, such as transcranial direct current stimulation, or tDCS. Our aim in this research is to investigate the effects of brain stimulation combined with psychological therapy in depression, an area that remains largely unexplored. Specifically, stimulation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), a brain region known to work inefficiently in depression, has been shown to result in an improvement of depressive symptoms, as well as in the patient's 'cognitive control' abilities. Because 'cognitive control' processes, such as concentrating and ignoring distracting thoughts, are engaged during psychological therapies for depression, we predict that DLPFC stimulation should improve how patients respond to psychological therapy. This study has considerable implications as it will potentially benefit a large number of patients for which current treatments are ineffective.

Conditions

  • Unipolar Major Depressive Disorder

Interventions

DEVICE

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS)

Patients - tDCS arm: 1 mA current delivered for 20 minutes once a week for 8 weeks, immediately prior to CBT. Patients - Sham arm: brief current change at the beginning (0 min) and end of each stimulation session (20 min) in order to mimic the effect of an actual stimulation, but no current delivered in between.

BEHAVIORAL

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

8 sessions of one hour (once weekly) immediately after tDCS or sham stimulation

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • University College, London

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Stephen Pilling, PhD · University College, London

  • Jonathan P Roiser, PhD · University College, London

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
DOUBLE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Max Age
60 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2014-07-22
Primary Completion
2017-03-07
Completion
2017-09-20

Countries

  • United Kingdom

Study Locations

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Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT01875419 on ClinicalTrials.gov