tDCS to Enhance Cognitive Training in Schizophrenia

August 7, 2017 updated by: Melissa Pigot, The University of New South Wales

Does Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) Enhance Outcomes From Computerised Cognitive Remediation in Patients With Schizophrenia?

The primary aim for the study is to determine whether transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) enhances training gains on cognitive training (CT) tasks. Secondary aims are to determine whether tDCS combined with CT causes larger transferable improvements on non-trained tasks (i.e., generalisation effects) and whether these generalisation effects are maintained over time (i.e., maintenance effects).

Specific hypotheses are:

  1. CT combined with active tDCS will produce greater training gains on CT tasks compared to a similar control group receiving CT with sham tDCS.
  2. CT combined with active tDCS will produce greater generalisation effects on non-trained cognitive tasks compared to CT with sham tDCS.
  3. The cognitive improvements gained by patients from both interventions will be maintained over 1 month follow-up.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Anticipated)

52

Phase

  • Phase 2
  • Phase 1

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

  • Australia
    • New South Wales
      • Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 2229
        • Mental Health Rehabilitation Unit (MHRU) at the Sutherland hospital

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

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 65 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  1. Subjects are 18 years of age or above.
  2. Subjects meet criteria for a DSM -IV schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder but with a stable mental status as demonstrated by a stable Positive and Negative Symptom Score (PANSS) score over a period of 2 weeks.
  3. Subjects have had no medication changes in the 2 weeks prior to obtaining informed consent.
  4. Subjects are right-handed.
  5. Subjects able to give informed consent for the trial.

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Drug or alcohol abuse or dependence (preceding 3 months).
  2. Concurrent anticonvulsant or long acting benzodiazepine medication, as these medications may interfere with the effects of tDCS.
  3. Subject requires a rapid clinical response due to inanition, psychosis or high suicide risk.
  4. Clinically defined neurological disorder or insult, including history of seizures, cerebral aneurysm or trauma, significant head trauma with loss of consciousness for ≥ 30 minutes.
  5. Subject has metal in the cranium, skull defects, or skin lesions on scalp at proposed electrode sites.
  6. Female subject of child bearing age, sexually active and not using reliable contraception

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
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: active tDCS and cognitive training
Transcranial direct current stimulation combined with cognitive training
Device: transcranial direct current stimulation
Active Comparator: sham tDCD and cognitive training
Sham transcranial direct current stimulation combined with cognitive training
Device: transcranial direct current stimulation

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Progression score on cognitive training task.
Time Frame: Post treatment
Post treatment

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

The University of New South Wales

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

November 1, 2012

Primary Completion (Actual)

November 1, 2016

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

November 26, 2012

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 26, 2012

First Posted (Estimate)

November 27, 2012

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

August 8, 2017

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 7, 2017

Last Verified

August 1, 2017

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 11/188

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.

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