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rTMS for Youth Inpatients With Depression

NCT07140575 · Status: RECRUITING · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 30

Last updated 2025-08-24

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Youth aged 15-24 are likelier to have depression than all age groups in Canada. One-third of depressed youth do not respond to psychotherapy and/or antidepressant medications. A treatment called repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation or rTMS has proven helpful in adolescents and young adults whose depressive symptoms have been difficult to treat with psychotherapy and/or antidepressants. Unfortunately, youth find rTMS difficult to access because it is not funded by the Ontario Health Insurance Plan, is typically only offered to adults, and the treatment schedule usually involves once-daily sessions, 5 days/week, for 4-6 weeks, which is associated with travel and opportunity costs e.g. missing school. This project looks at the feasibility of a new treatment pathway that allows youth with difficult-to-treat depression in hospital to receive rTMS twice-daily while engaging in on-unit schooling and therapeutic support. This "accelerated" way of providing rTMS is safe, has equal effectiveness to once-daily rTMS, and can shorten the time needed for treatment. This pathway is for youth already staying in hospital for difficult-to-treat depression or youth outside hospital who have difficult-to-treat depression that interferes with daily function to such a degree that they would benefit from staying in hospital. The investigators anticipate integrating rTMS and inpatient care for youth will be feasible, that it will be acceptable and accessible to youth and families, and there will be sufficient demand for this new treatment pathway. If successful, this project will inform care for youth with difficult-to-treat depression in Ontario and beyond.

Conditions

  • Major Depression Moderate
  • Feasibility Studies

Interventions

DEVICE

repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS)

twice daily rTMS, intermittent theta burst stimulation targeting the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex with a figure-8 coil

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre

    lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation
NA
Purpose
HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH
Masking
NONE
Model
SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age
14 Years
Max Age
19 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2025-08-31
Primary Completion
2027-07-31
Completion
2027-12-31

Countries

  • Canada

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 NCT07140575 on ClinicalTrials.gov