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Feasibility and Efficacy of rTMS in Depression in Patients With Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

NCT07258914 · Status: RECRUITING · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 25

Last updated 2025-12-02

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Depression is a common complication of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): it is four times more prevalent in people with ASD than in the general population.

However, treating depression in people with ASD is complicated by the lack of guidelines. Antidepressants appear to be less effective and less well tolerated than in the general population.

rTMS (repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation) is a technique that stimulates the brain in a painless and non-invasive way. This technique is well tolerated and has very few side effects (headaches, fatigue). It is now used routinely in clinical practice to treat resistant depression, with satisfactory results.

A few studies using rTMS in depression in people with ASD have shown encouraging results and avenues for improvement.

It could therefore be interesting to conduct a therapeutic study with rTMS on depression in people with ASD, following the avenues for improvement proposed by previous studies.

The main objective is to evaluate the effectiveness of rTMS in depressed patients with ASD by looking at changes in mood before and after treatment. The investigator will also look at the effects on executive and attentional functions and repetitive behaviors, as well as treatment tolerance.

Conditions

Interventions

OTHER

rTMS

Patients receive 20 sessions of intermittent theta burst stimulation of the left CPFDL over 5 days (4 sessions of 10 minutes per day with a 50-minute interval between each session). The CPFDL is located using neuronavigation, which requires an MRI scan (without contrast agent injection) before the sessions.

OTHER

rTMS treatment with intermittent Theta Burst (ITBS)

rTMS (iTBS) treatment with stimulation of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). Localization is performed using neuronavigation. There are four 10-minute sessions per day, with a 50-minute interval between each session.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Hospital Center Guillaume Régnier

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Cécilia NAUCZYCIEL, Doctor · Centre Hospitalier Guillaume Régnier

Study Design

Allocation
NA
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Model
SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

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

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2024-12-19
Primary Completion
2026-02-19
Completion
2026-02-19

Countries

  • France

Study Locations

More Related Trials

Entities

Diseases

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 NCT07258914 on ClinicalTrials.gov