Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) As Treatment for Major Depression (DepressionDC)

June 13, 2023 updated by: Daniel Keeser, Ludwig-Maximilians - University of Munich

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) As Treatment for Major Depression - A Prospective Multicenter Double Blind Randomized Placebo Controlled Trial (DepressionDC)

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a common, recurrent, and frequent chronic disorder. Treatment is often challenging; an estimated 20-40% of patients do not benefit sufficiently from existing antidepressant interventions including trials of medication and psychotherapy. A 15-25% of patients manifest a chronic, treatment-resistant course of illness, resulting in a need for additional treatment options. Brain stimulation techniques are considered as a promising therapeutic approach in affective disorders like MDD. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive brain stimulation method that has been largely investigated in experimental neurosciences and tDCS of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) has been proposed as novel treatment in MDD. In the largest 2x2 factorial randomized controlled trial in MDD to date, Brunoni et al. (2013) have shown that tDCS combined with an Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI; sertraline) resulted in an antidepressant efficacy superior to placebo treatment, tDCS alone and sertraline alone.

The purpose of this study is to explore the sustained efficacy and tolerability of repeated tDCS for the treatment of MDD. It is hypothesized that prefrontal tDCS in combination with an SSRI will provoke an antidepressant effect while antidepressant medication alone (sham tDCS) did not. This will be measured by the change from baseline in the Montgomery Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) scores after 6 weeks of treatment.

In this randomized, placebo-controlled multicenter trial (5 centers involved) patients with a diagnosis of MDD receive a 6-weeks treatment with prefrontal tDCS (anode over electrode position F3, cathode over F4, 5 sessions/week for 4 weeks followed by 2 sessions/week for 2 weeks, 24 treatments in sum, 30min/day, 2mA intensity) or sham tDCS (frequency and duration correspondent active tDCS, ramp in and ramp out periods only without intermittent stimulation), as adjunctive treatment with a SSRI. Follow-up per patient is 3 and 6 months after the last tDCS treatment session. Before, during and after the treatment period different assessment scales will be conducted to record neuropsychological features and the course of the individual symptomatology.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

163

Phase

  • 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 Locations

  • Germany
      • Munich, Germany, 80336
        • Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Ludwig-Maximilian University Munich

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

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Men and women 18-65 years of age.
  • Primary DSM-5 diagnosis of Major Depression as assessed by the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-5 Axis I Disorders, Research Version (SCID-5-RV) with a single or recurrent episode with the additional requirements of a current episode with a duration of ≥4 weeks.
  • Current depressive episode is less than 5 years duration (the definition of an episode is demarcated by a period of ≥2 months in which the patient did not meet full criteria for the DSM-5 definition of major depressive episode).
  • Total HDRS-21 ≥15 at the screening visit.
  • The patient did not respond to at least one antidepressant treatment, i.e., a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 4 antidepressant drug trials, of adequate dose and duration (defined as a minimum level of 2 on the ATHF) in the current episode.
  • Patient is taking a SSRI of adequate dose and ≥4 weeks (defined as a minimum level of 2 on the ATHF) in the current episode.
  • Capable and willing to provide informed consent.
  • Negative pregnancy test and willingness to use contraceptive measures during study treatment for women with childbearing potential (i.e <. 2 years post-menopausal)

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Investigators, site personnel directly affiliated with this study, and their immediate families (immediate family is defined as a spouse, parent, child or sibling, whether by birth or legal adoption).
  • Acute risk for suicide (MADRS, item 10 score of >4 or as assessed by the C-SSRS, agree to item 4 and/or to item 5).
  • High degree of therapy resistance defined as >4 sufficient treatment attempts in the current episode (each attempt with an ATHF score of >3).
  • Treatment with electroconvulsive therapy in the present episode.
  • Treatment with deep brain stimulation or vagus nerve stimulation and/or any other intracranial implants (clips, cochlear implants).
  • Any other relevant psychiatric axis-I- and/or axis-II-disorder.
  • Any relevant instable medical condition.
  • History of treatment with tDCS for any disorder.
  • Pregnancy.

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: Triple

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Placebo Comparator: sham tDCS
Device: Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS)
active/sham tDCS as adjunctive treatment with a SSRI
Active Comparator: real tDCS
Device: Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS)
active/sham tDCS as adjunctive treatment with a SSRI

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Change from baseline in the Montgomery Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) scores at week 6 post-randomization compared to baseline.
Time Frame: 6 weeks
6 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Ludwig-Maximilians - University of Munich

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

Helpful Links

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)

September 1, 2015

Primary Completion (Actual)

June 1, 2020

Study Completion (Actual)

February 1, 2021

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

August 19, 2015

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 19, 2015

First Posted (Estimated)

August 20, 2015

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

June 15, 2023

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 13, 2023

Last Verified

June 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • DEP-1483-0152-I

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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