The Effectiveness of tDCS on Internet Game Addiction

March 23, 2020 updated by: Jung-Seok Choi, Seoul National University Hospital

Randomized Double-blind Clinical Trial to Evaluate the Effectiveness of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) on Internet Game Addiction

In this study, the investigators aimed to investigate the effect of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on clinical status of Internet game addiction. The clinical status of Internet game addiction includes severity of addiction symptom, subjective craving for gaming, response inhibition and cue reactivity. The investigators hypothesized that real stimulation with tDCS on the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex will have higher effectiveness on severity of addiction symptom, subjective craving for gaming, response inhibition and cue reactivity rather than sham stimulation with tDCS.

Study Overview

Status

Status

Indicates the current recruitment status or the expanded access status.
Completed

Conditions

Conditions

The disease, disorder, syndrome, illness, or injury that is being studied. On ClinicalTrials.gov, conditions may also include other health-related issues, such as lifespan, quality of life, and health risks.

Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.

Study Type

Study Type

Describes the nature of a clinical study. Study types include interventional studies (also called clinical trials), observational studies (including patient registries), and expanded access.
Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

Enrollment

The number of participants in a clinical study. The "anticipated" enrollment is the target number of participants that the researchers need for the study.
31

Phase

Phase

The stage of a clinical trial studying a drug or biological product, based on definitions developed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The phase is based on the study's objective, the number of participants, and other characteristics. There are five phases: Early Phase 1 (formerly listed as Phase 0), Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, and Phase 4. Not Applicable is used to describe trials without FDA-defined phases, including trials of devices or behavioral interventions.
  • Phase 2

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

The key requirements that people who want to participate in a clinical study must meet or the characteristics they must have. Eligibility criteria consist of both inclusion criteria (which are required for a person to participate in the study) and exclusion criteria (which prevent a person from participating). Types of eligibility criteria include whether a study accepts healthy volunteers, has age or age group requirements, or is limited by sex.

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 50 years (Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Diagnosis of Internet gaming disorder based on diagnostic criteria of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)-5.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • History of seizure
  • History of significant head injury
  • Mental retardation
  • Schizophrenia
  • History of stroke

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Double

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Participant Group / Arm

A group or subgroup of participants in a clinical trial that receives a specific intervention/treatment, or no intervention, according to the trial's protocol.
Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.
Active Comparator: tDCS with real stimulation
A total of 25 patients will be allocated into active comparator with real stimulation with tDCS.
Device: tDCS with real stimulation
tDCS is a non-invasive brain stimulation. Real stimulation includes 2mA current for 20 minutes per session. Two sessions a day for 5 consecutive days (Total: 10 sessions) will be applied.
Sham Comparator: tDCS with sham stimulation
A total of 25 patients will be allocated into sham comparator with sham stimulation with tDCS.
Device: tDCS with sham stimulation
Sham stimulation includes 0mA current for 20 minutes per session. Two sessions a day for 5 consecutive days (Total: 10 sessions) will be applied.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, the planned outcome measure that is the most important for evaluating the effect of an intervention/treatment. Most clinical studies have one primary outcome measure, but some have more than one.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Young Internet Addiction Test (Y-IAT)
Time Frame: baseline
The Y-IAT is rated on a five-point scale. Total scores for all 20 items range from 20 to 100.
baseline
Young Internet Addiction Test (Y-IAT)
Time Frame: 1 week
The Y-IAT is rated on a five-point scale. Total scores for all 20 items range from 20 to 100.
1 week
Young Internet Addiction Test (Y-IAT)
Time Frame: 5 week
The Y-IAT is rated on a five-point scale. Total scores for all 20 items range from 20 to 100.
5 week
Young Internet Addiction Test (Y-IAT)
Time Frame: 25 week
The Y-IAT is rated on a five-point scale. Total scores for all 20 items range from 20 to 100.
25 week

Secondary Outcome Measures

Secondary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, a planned outcome measure that is not as important as the primary outcome measure for evaluating the effect of an intervention but is still of interest. Most clinical studies have more than one secondary outcome measure.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Direction error and successful stop ratio in the Stop signal task
Time Frame: baseline, 5 weeks, 25 weeks
The stop signal task is a neurocognitive task for assessing response inhibition.
baseline, 5 weeks, 25 weeks
Barratt impulsiveness scale-11
Time Frame: baseline, 5 weeks, 25 weeks
Barratt impulsiveness scale-11 is a self-report questionnaire consisting of 30 items. Each question has a 4-point scale ranging from 1 (rarely/never) to 4 (almost always/always). This scale scores three subscales: attentional impulsiveness, motor impulsiveness, and nonplanning impulsiveness. The total score ranges from 30 to 120 and higher scores indicate greater impulsivity.
baseline, 5 weeks, 25 weeks
Anti-saccade error rate in the attentional bias task
Time Frame: baseline, 5 weeks, 25 weeks
The attentional bias task is measured by anti-saccade task using eye-tracking analysis for assessing attentional bias on Internet gaming stimuli.
baseline, 5 weeks, 25 weeks
Late positive potential in the cue reactivity event-related potential
Time Frame: baseline, 5 weeks, 25 weeks
Event-related potential measures with cue reactivity task
baseline, 5 weeks, 25 weeks
Visual analogue scale
Time Frame: baseline, 1 week, 5 weeks, 25 weeks
Subjective craving for Internet gaming ranging from 0 to 10. Higher score represents higher craving for gaming.
baseline, 1 week, 5 weeks, 25 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Sponsor

The organization or person who initiates the study and who has authority and control over the study.
Seoul National University Hospital

Collaborators

Collaborators

An organization other than the sponsor that provides support for a clinical study. This support may include activities related to funding, design, implementation, data analysis, or reporting.
National Research Foundation of Korea
SMG-SNU Boramae Medical Center

Investigators

Investigators

A researcher involved in a clinical study. Related terms include site principal investigator, site sub-investigator, study chair, study director, and study principal investigator.
  • Principal Investigator: Jung-Seok Choi, MD, PhD, SMG-SNU Boramae Medical Center

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

Study Start

The actual date on which the first participant was enrolled in a clinical study. The "anticipated" study start date is the date that the researchers think will be the study start date.
September 22, 2017

Primary Completion (Actual)

Primary Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention to collect final data for the primary outcome measure. Whether the clinical study ended according to the protocol or was terminated does not affect this date. For clinical studies with more than one primary outcome measure with different completion dates, this term refers to the date on which data collection is completed for all the primary outcome measures. The "anticipated" primary completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the primary completion date for the study.
September 1, 2019

Study Completion (Actual)

Study Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention/treatment to collect final data for the primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures, and adverse events (that is, the last participant's last visit). The "anticipated" study completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the study completion date.
October 8, 2019

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

First Submitted

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submitted a study record to ClinicalTrials.gov. There is typically a delay of a few days between the first submitted date and the record's availability on ClinicalTrials.gov (the first posted date).
November 13, 2017

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submits a study record that is consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. The sponsor or investigator may need to revise and submit a study record one or more times before NLM's QC review criteria are met. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
November 15, 2017

First Posted (Actual)

First Posted

The date on which the study record was first available on ClinicalTrials.gov after National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review has concluded. There is typically a delay of a few days between the date the study sponsor or investigator submitted the study record and the first posted date.
November 20, 2017

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

Last Update Posted

The most recent date on which changes to a study record were made available on ClinicalTrials.gov. There may be a delay between when the changes were submitted to ClinicalTrials.gov by the study's sponsor or investigator (the last update submitted date) and the last update posted date.
March 24, 2020

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator submitted changes to a study record that are consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
March 23, 2020

Last Verified

Last Verified

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator confirmed the information about a clinical study on ClinicalTrials.gov as accurate and current. If a study with a recruitment status of recruiting; not yet recruiting; or active, not recruiting has not been confirmed within the past 2 years, the study's recruitment status is shown as unknown.
March 1, 2020

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

Other Study ID Numbers

Identifiers or ID numbers other than the NCT number that are assigned to a clinical study by the study's sponsor, funders, or others. These numbers may include unique identifiers from other trial registries and National Institutes of Health grant numbers.
  • 30-2017-10

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

No

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

Clinical Trials on Addiction

Clinical Trials on tDCS with real stimulation

Search Similar Trials

Sponsors and Collaborators

Medical Conditions

Drug Interventions

Conditions

Rare Diseases

Drug Interventions

Dietary Supplements

Sponsor/Collaborators

Locations

Cookie Settings

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. For more details carefully read our Privacy and Cookies Policy. ...>>>You can change your preferences or withdraw your consent at any time by deleting the cookies from your website or computer as described in the policy. Please accept it and choose your preferences by ticking the corresponding boxes in the "Manage Settings" section below. Please carefully read our Terms of Service before you proceed with using any part of this website.
«Manage Settings