TMS + Exposure Therapy for Pediatric OCD: Second Phase (NExT)

October 15, 2026 updated by: Kristen Benito, Bradley Hospital

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation to Augment Exposure and Response Prevention for Pediatric OCD

The goal of this clinical trial is to test transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) for improving the outcomes of Exposure with Response Prevention (ERP) in youth and young adults with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Researchers will compare two groups: ERP with active ("real") TMS vs. ERP with sham ("fake") TMS. The first phase of this study found that active TMS+ERP normalized functioning in brain circuits that contribute to compulsive behavior. This second phase will test whether TMS-induced brain changes lead to improvements in OCD symptom severity. Participants will:

  • Complete clinical interviews, questionnaires, and computerized tasks
  • Complete two MRIs (brain scans)
  • Receive daily TMS followed by ERP for two weeks (10 sessions)

Study Overview

Status

Status

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

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.

Detailed Description

Pediatric OCD is a public health problem and many remain symptomatic even after receiving efficacious treatments. The success of exposure and response prevention (ERP), a first-line behavioral treatment, depends on the ability to refrain from compulsions during exposure tasks. Improving this "therapy critical behavior" is a potentially important strategy for ERP augmentation. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) can be leveraged to stimulate healthier functioning of brain circuits underlying therapy critical behaviors. The overall objective of this project is to test whether augmenting ERP with rTMS over cortical nodes of select cortico-striatal circuits implicated in compulsivity can normalize connectivity and enhance response prevention in youth and young adults with OCD. This project will use a masked RCT design to test whether ERP+TMS engages hypothesized circuits involved in compulsivity and whether this leads to clinical improvement. Youth ages 12-21 years with OCD will complete a full course of ERP plus randomly assigned TMS regimens of sham or continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) to the presupplementary motor area (pSMA; n=30 per group).

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 (Estimated)

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.
60

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.
  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

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

Study Contact

Study Contact

The name and contact information for the person who can answer enrollment questions for a clinical study. Each location where the study is being conducted may also have a specific contact, who may be better able to answer those questions.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Minnesota
      • Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, 55414
        • Recruiting
        • University of Minnesota
        • Contact:
    • Rhode Island
      • Providence, Rhode Island, United States, 02915
        • Recruiting
        • Emma Pendleton Bradley Hospital
        • Contact:

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

12 years to 21 years (Child, Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Between the ages of 12 and 21 years.
  • Presence of OCD, as indicated by a score of > 16 on the Children's Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale, indicating moderate or greater OCD symptoms.
  • Presence of motor compulsions on CY-BOCS compulsion checklist
  • English fluency to ensure comprehension of informed consent and study measures and instructions.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Decline to provide informed consent.
  • Has a personal history, or a family history in a first-born relative, of any medical or psychiatric disorder, disease, condition, injury, symptoms or circumstance that, in the opinion of the principal investigator, may: (1) impact the risk profile of TMS; (2) reduce the subject's ability to fulfill the study requirements as per protocol; or (3) adversely impact the integrity of the data or the validity of the study results." Some examples include: epilepsy or seizure disorder(s), bipolar disorder or any psychiatric disorder associated with a risk of mania, intracranial pathology, traumatic brain injury, brain tumor, stroke, implanted medical devices or metallic objects in the head, or moderate-severe heart disease
  • Pregnant according to the medical history or a urine pregnancy test; and menstruating females who are heterosexually active and not using a highly effective form of contraception (tubal ligation, FDA-approved hormonal contraceptive, or an IUD)
  • Inability to undergo MRI.
  • Is deemed to be at imminent risk of suicide according to the Ask Suicide-Screening Questions (ASQ) (i.e. answers YES to ≥ one (1) of the four screening questions) and/or in the medical opinion of the investigator
  • History of, or risk factors for, neurocardiogenic syncope (history of syncope/ presyncope related to noxious stimuli, anxiety, micturation, or posture).
  • Concurrent psychotherapy of any kind for OCD.
  • Concurrent TMS or receipt of any TMS experimental or clinical treatment less than 3 months prior to enrollment.
  • Taking a medication deemed to pose high seizurogenic potential per physician review
  • Taking a medication that has not reached stability criterion (same medication and dose for 6 weeks with no planned changes over the study period)

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: Quadruple

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.
Experimental: ERP+cTBS

Participants will receive two weeks (10 sessions) of continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS; a form of TMS) targeting the presupplementary motor area (pSMA), followed immediately by Exposure Plus Response Prevention (ERP).
Device: Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation: continuous theta burst to pre supplementary motor area

TMS will be delivered over the pre supplementary motor area (preSMA) using a continuous bursting pattern

Other Names:
  • TMS
  • neuromodulation
  • cTBS
Behavioral: Exposure with Response Prevention

ERP will be delivered daily, immediately following TMS

Other Names:
  • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
  • CBT
  • Exposure Therapy
  • ERP
Active Comparator: ERP+Sham

Participants will receive two weeks (10 sessions) of sham ("fake") TMS, followed immediately by Exposure Plus Response Prevention (ERP).
Behavioral: Exposure with Response Prevention

ERP will be delivered daily, immediately following TMS

Other Names:
  • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
  • CBT
  • Exposure Therapy
  • ERP
Device: Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation: Sham

Sham stimulation will use the Magstim sham air-cooled coil, which produces auditory signals and appears identical to an active coil but contains a mu-metal shield that diverts the majority of the magnetic flux such that a minimal (<3%) magnetic field is delivered to the cortex

Other Names:
  • TMS
  • neuromodulation

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
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI): connectivity of the pSMA-DLS circuit
Time Frame: two weeks (post-treatment)

correlation coefficient representing resting state connectivity between presupplementary motor area (pSMA) and dorsolateral striatum (DLS)
two weeks (post-treatment)
Observed Compulsive Behavior
Time Frame: two weeks

Duration of time during which compulsions are observed during ERP sessions
two weeks
Child/Adult Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Inventory
Time Frame: six weeks (1-month follow-up)

Independent-Evaluator (IE) rated measure of OCD symptom severity. Rated on 0 (no symptoms) to 40 (most extreme symptoms) scale
six weeks (1-month follow-up)

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
Clinical Global Impressions Scale-Improvement
Time Frame: six weeks (1-month follow-up)

Independent-Evaluator (IE) rated measure of clinical improvement. Rated on 1 (very much improved) to 7 (very much worse) scale
six weeks (1-month follow-up)

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.
Bradley 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.
University of Minnesota
Butler Hospital

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: Kristen Benito, PhD, Emma Pendleton Bradley Hospital
  • Principal Investigator: Christine Conelea, University of Minnesota

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 (Estimated)

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.
October 31, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

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.
August 31, 2029

Study Completion (Estimated)

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 31, 2029

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).
October 1, 2026

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.
October 1, 2026

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.
October 6, 2026

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.
October 19, 2026

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.
October 15, 2026

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.
October 1, 2026

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.
  • 2113426
  • R33MH133666 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

YES

IPD Plan Description

We will share all de-identified data from study measures through the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Data Archive (NDA) using the data dictionaries available in NDA. As per NIMH Data Archive, data will be deidentified and assigned a Global Unique Identifier (GUID).

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

Yes

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.

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