MedTrace Logo

Applying Neuromodulation to Boost the Efficacy of Motivational Interviewing

NCT07787572 · Status: NOT_YET_RECRUITING · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 82

Last updated 2026-08-27

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn how adding brain stimulation to a brief counseling session affects adults with cannabis use disorder. The counseling session uses motivational interviewing, which helps people talk through their reasons for changing or not changing cannabis use. The brain stimulation is called transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS). tACS uses electrodes on the scalp to give a very weak electrical current for a short time.

The main questions it aims to answer are:

* Does active tACS affect what participants say during the counseling session?
* Does active tACS change brain activity after the session?
* Is active tACS related to less cannabis use during the month after the session?

Researchers will compare motivational interviewing with active tACS to motivational interviewing with placebo stimulation. Placebo stimulation uses the same setup but does not provide the active 30-minute stimulation. Participants will be assigned by chance to one of these groups, and neither participants nor the study staff member running the session will know which type of stimulation is used.

Participants will complete questionnaires, breath and urine tests, a recorded counseling session during active or placebo stimulation, MEG and MRI brain scans, daily text-message check-ins about cannabis use, and follow-up questionnaires about one month later.

Conditions

  • Cannabis Use Disorder

Interventions

DEVICE

transcranial alternating current stimulation

Active transcranial alternating current stimulation

DEVICE

sham transcranial alternating current stimulation

sham transcranial alternating current stimulation including 30 seconds of ramp-up and ramp-down at the beginning and end of the session, with no stimulation between ramping procedures.

BEHAVIORAL

Motivational interviewing (MI)

30 minute motivational interviewing session

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

    collaborator NIH

  • The Mind Research Network

    lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
DOUBLE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

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

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2026-08-31
Primary Completion
2028-08-31
Completion
2028-08-31
FDA Device
Yes

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

More Related Trials

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 NCT07787572 on ClinicalTrials.gov