Post-concussion and Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation

Children and youth are at a greater risk of concussions than adults, and once injured, take longer to recover. The increased incidence of sports-related concussion in youth and the potentially serious long-term negative impact on their developing brains has enormous repercussions. While most young athletes recover within several days, many continue to experience symptoms for many months post-concussion. Symptoms are wide ranging and include - most notably: headache, sleep disturbances, brain fog, irritability as well as impairments in emotion and cognitive function (i.e. attention, memory, concentration, etc.). Yet there are no evidence-based intervention studies that have successfully addressed these symptoms. Thus, there is an urgent need for improved therapeutic strategies, which promote optimal functional recovery in youth concussion.

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a safe, non-invasive neurostimulation technique that can modulate neural excitability in the brain to positively impact cognition, behaviour and mood, particularly when combined with a behavioural intervention. Our long-term goal is to determine whether exercise combined with neurostimulation improves recovery from concussion. However, to our knowledge, the therapeutic potential of tDCS has not been studied in youth with concussion. Our objectives are as follows:

1. To determine the tolerability of a 20-minute session of tDCS in symptomatic youth athletes;
2. To evaluate the association between symptoms and EEG metrics at baseline and following a single session of tDCS in symptomatic athletes and compare these associations in symptomatic athletes who do not receive tDCS.

Study Overview

• Status: Unknown
• Conditions: Concussion, Mild
• Intervention / Treatment: Device: Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS)

Detailed Description

Transcranial direct current stimulation is a non-invasive technique of neuromodulation that is inexpensive, easy to use and more importantly shows great promise to modify cortical excitability. Application of a weak direct current through the scalp has been shown to induce polarity specific changes in the excitability of cortical neurons23. This effect of transcranial direct current stimulation was first demonstrated in the human motor cortex. Since then it has also shown to be effective for other brain regions such as visual, somatosensory or frontal regions.

The advantage of tDCS in managing concussion is that this technique can be used to focally suppress or enhance neuronal firing depending on the size and location of the applied electrodes. Thus, at different points during the trajectory of concussion, the technique can be matched to the underlying pathophysiology. For example, work by Demitras et al suggests that cathodal tDCS may be used to suppress the acute glutamatergic hyperexcitability in the acute stages of brain injury; in the subacute stage, when GABAergic activity is excessive, anodal tDCS may increase excitability to counter these aberrant GABAergic effects. In the chronic stage, brain stimulation coupled to rehabilitation may enhance behavioral recovery, learning of new skills and cortical plasticity. Thus far, one pilot study has shown that a single session of anodal tDCS over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex was associated with improvements in attention in adults with chronic TBI.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Anticipated): 25
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Canada
  • British Columbia
    • Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, V6T 1Z3
      • Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 25 years (ADULT)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

1. Symptomatic youth athletes (between18-25 years) who are between one to three months post concussion (participants will have had a witnessed head impact during a practice or game and be diagnosed with a concussion by team medical staff).
2. Regular participation in organized sport (>2 practice or games per week)

Exclusion Criteria:

1. No history of a developmental disorder.
2. No prior moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury.
3. Fewer than four lifetime concussions (any cause),
4. No diagnosis or family history of schizophrenia, major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder or other psychiatric diagnosis
5. no previous history of seizures.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: TREATMENT
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Interventional Model: PARALLEL
• Masking: NONE

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
PLACEBO_COMPARATOR: Sham tDCS; Participants will be participate in a 20-minute sham tDCS session. tDCS electrodes will be placed on the left (anodal positive polarity) and right (cathodal;negative polarity) dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Sham stimulation will be applied.	Device: Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS); tDCS is a safe, non-invasive neurostimulation technique that can modulate neural excitability in the brain to positively impact cognition, behaviour and mood, particularly when combined with a behavioural intervention
ACTIVE_COMPARATOR: tDCS; Participants will participate in a 20-minute tDCS session. tDCS electrodes will be placed on the left (anodal positive polarity) and right (cathodal;negative polarity) dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.	Device: Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS); tDCS is a safe, non-invasive neurostimulation technique that can modulate neural excitability in the brain to positively impact cognition, behaviour and mood, particularly when combined with a behavioural intervention

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Comfort Rating Questionnaire (CRQ)	The scale asks participants to rate the following during and after the stimulation on a scale from 1-10 with 1 = not all all and 10= extremely: pain, tingling, burning, fatigue, nervousness, disturbed concentration, disturbed visual perception, headache. Three additional questions (yes/no response) are also asked: 1) Was the stimulation uncomfortable, 2)Did you notice a flash during/after the stimulation and 3) Did you notice sleep disturbances after the stimulation?	10 minutes

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Symptom checklist from the Sports Assessment Concussion Assessment Tool - 5th Edition	Participants are asked to indicate the symptom severity of 22 symptoms on the checklist. The scores range from 0 (none) to 6 (severe)	10 minutes

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of British Columbia
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Naznin Virji-Babul, PhD, University of British Columbia

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (ANTICIPATED): April 1, 2018
• Primary Completion (ANTICIPATED): April 1, 2019
• Study Completion (ANTICIPATED): April 1, 2020

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: March 15, 2018
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 27, 2018
• First Posted (ACTUAL): March 29, 2018

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (ACTUAL): March 29, 2018
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 27, 2018
• Last Verified: March 1, 2018

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Brain Diseases; Central Nervous System Diseases; Nervous System Diseases; Wounds and Injuries; Craniocerebral Trauma; Trauma, Nervous System; Head Injuries, Closed; Wounds, Nonpenetrating; Brain Injuries; Brain Injuries, Traumatic; Brain Concussion
• Other Study ID Numbers: UBColumbia

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: UNDECIDED

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No