Investigating if a Stronger tDCS Intensity is More Effective for Improving Naming Ability in People Living With Alzheimer's Disease

August 9, 2024 updated by: Tyler Roncero, Baycrest
There is currently little symptomatic therapy for Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and nothing effective for individuals with Frontotemporal dementia (FTD). However, neuromodulation with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has the potential to be a clinically effective therapy for both AD and FTD. The challenge now is to specify the parameters and conditions under which tDCS is most effective to transition from the laboratory to clinical medicine. tDCS studies typically report significant group effects despite the variability demonstrated among participants, with some showing clear, meaningful improvement, while others only show statistical improvement or none at all. These variable results may be related to the conventional stimulation intensity level of 2mA. The investigators predict that administering tDCS at 4.0 mA, a more significant number of participants would show a meaningful response, and those who improve at 2mA may improve even more from 4.0mA due to having a larger electric field produced. The investigators aim to test this hypothesis in people with Alzheimer's Disease.

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

42

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 Contact

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

Ages Eligible for Study

50 years to 90 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Mild to Moderate AD
  • Score between 18 and 25 on the MoCA
  • Score on the Cambridge Naming Task during the pre-assessment

Exclusion Criteria:

  • No history of stroke or TBI
  • No shunts or metal in the body
  • No history of significant heart disease, alcoholism and drug use

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: Crossover Assignment
  • Masking: Double

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Sham Comparator: SHAM
Device: transcranial direct current stimulation and naming training
Participants will receive mild stimulation or no stimulation along with naming training
Experimental: 4mA Stimulation
Device: transcranial direct current stimulation and naming training
Participants will receive mild stimulation or no stimulation along with naming training
Active Comparator: 2mA Stimulation
Device: transcranial direct current stimulation and naming training
Participants will receive mild stimulation or no stimulation along with naming training

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Naming Training
Time Frame: 3 months
The primary outcome measure will be change on the naming lists administered, both a trained version and an untrained version. This change will be measured in terms of the number of images correctly named post-training compared to baseline
3 months

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Baycrest

Collaborators

Alzheimer's Society

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, 2022

Primary Completion (Estimated)

December 31, 2025

Study Completion (Estimated)

December 31, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

August 18, 2022

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 18, 2022

First Posted (Actual)

August 22, 2022

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

August 13, 2024

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 9, 2024

Last Verified

August 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • #22-19

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

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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