- ICH GCP
- US Clinical Trials Registry
- Clinical Trial NCT06203717
Cranial Electrotherapy Stimulation: Piloting a Road to PTSD Prevention in First Responders
April 1, 2024 updated by: Butler Hospital
The goal of this study is to test whether active duty firefighters find it possible and suitable to do cranial electrotherapy stimulation (CES) at home, and test whether CES influences measures of stress. The main questions it aims to answer are:
- is CES feasible and acceptable in a population of firefighters, and
- does CES changes feelings of fatigue, anxiety, and brain connectivity in firefighters.
Participants will
- complete four weeks of CES at home, and
- complete daily assessments of fatigue and anxiety, and maybe asked to
- complete an MRI scan before and after CES, and
- wear a device to measure their heart rate and sleep quality.
Study Overview
Status
Enrolling by invitation
Conditions
Intervention / Treatment
Detailed Description
Despite an urgent need for interventions that can prevent the development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in firefighter first responders who, due to the nature of their occupation, are at ultrahigh risk for PTSD and its profound consequences, current preventative approaches suffer from low rates of efficacy or difficulties with implementation.
Cranial electrotherapy stimulation (CES), a noninvasive brain stimulation technique that is FDA approved for treatment of anxiety, insomnia, and depression, offers substantial promise as a proactive preventative intervention for PTSD because of its hypothesized ability to reestablish homeostasis, a process that becomes dysregulated in individuals who develop PTSD.
The proposed study is an administrative supplement that combines the unique strengths and knowledge of a complimentary team of scientists from two distinct Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence to test whether four weeks of CES is feasible and acceptable in firefighters as well as obtain early signal of CES efficacy to change subjective and objective indices of homeostatic functioning to allow a long-term collaboration with the ultimate goal to develop a safe, effective, and easily deployable intervention to prevent PTSD in first responders.
Study Type
Interventional
Enrollment (Estimated)
20
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
-
-
Rhode Island
-
Providence, Rhode Island, United States, 02906
- Butler 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
- Adult
Accepts Healthy Volunteers
Yes
Description
Inclusion Criteria:
- Active duty firefighter in Rhode Island, USA;
- Age between 18 and 56 years old;
- Be in good medical health or, if having chronic medical conditions, these conditions needed to be stable;
- Ability to speak, read, write, and understand English sufficiently well to complete study procedures and provide informed consent.
Exclusion Criteria:
- MRI and CES-related contraindications, e.g., implanted metallic device or substances including pacemakers, cochlear implant, metallic tattoos, claustrophobia, pregnancy or planning to become pregnant during the study duration and nursing;
- Neurological conditions such as brain neoplasm, cerebrovascular events, epilepsy or history of seizures, dementia, and neurodegenerative disorders, or had previously received brain surgery;
- Report presence of suicidal ideation on QuickSCID-5 or has attempted suicide one or more times within the past twelve months;
- Exhibiting a psychiatric condition that would require inpatient or partial psychiatric hospitalization;
- Current moderate or severe alcohol or other substance abuse (excluding nicotine);
- Major or unstable medical illness requiring further investigation or treatment.
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: Other
- Allocation: N/A
- Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
- Masking: None (Open Label)
Arms and Interventions
Participant Group / Arm |
Intervention / Treatment |
---|---|
Experimental: Alpha-Stim AID cranial electrotherapy stimulation
Four-week course of noninvasive cranial electrotherapy stimulation.
|
Cranial electrotherapy stimulation using a modified square, bipolar waveform of 0.5 Hz at 100 μA to be used for four weeks on off-duty days.
|
What is the study measuring?
Primary Outcome Measures
Outcome Measure |
Measure Description |
Time Frame |
---|---|---|
Number of completed cranial electrotherapy stimulation sessions in four weeks
Time Frame: During and following four weeks of cranial electrotherapy stimulation
|
Feasibility assessed by number of completed cranial electrotherapy stimulation sessions over the course of four weeks (feasible is defined as more than 75% of sessions completed).
|
During and following four weeks of cranial electrotherapy stimulation
|
Acceptability assessed by number of individuals who complete at least 75% of all cranial electrotherapy stimulation sessions in four weeks
Time Frame: During and following four weeks of cranial electrotherapy stimulation
|
Acceptability assessed by number of individuals who complete at least 75% of all cranial electrotherapy stimulation sessions during four weeks (less than 20% attrition in the sample).
|
During and following four weeks of cranial electrotherapy stimulation
|
Intensity of anxiety assessed by VAS
Time Frame: Daily throughout four weeks of cranial electrotherapy stimulation
|
Intensity of anxiety will be assessed once daily using a visual analog scale (VAS) with a 0 (not at all) - 100 (severe) scale.
|
Daily throughout four weeks of cranial electrotherapy stimulation
|
Secondary Outcome Measures
Outcome Measure |
Measure Description |
Time Frame |
---|---|---|
Intensity of feelings of fatigue assessed by VAS
Time Frame: Daily throughout four weeks of cranial electrotherapy stimulation
|
Intensity of subjective fatigue will be assessed once daily using a visual analog scale (VAS) with a 0 (not at all) - 100 (severe) scale.
|
Daily throughout four weeks of cranial electrotherapy stimulation
|
Structural neural connectivity assessed with magnetic resonance imaging
Time Frame: Pre and post four weeks of cranial electrotherapy stimulation.
|
Strength of structural connectivity between thalamus and cortical/subcortical regions will be assessed with magnetic resonance, diffusion tensor imaging
|
Pre and post four weeks of cranial electrotherapy stimulation.
|
Severity of symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder as measured with the PTSD Checklist for DMS 5 (PCL-5)
Time Frame: Pre and post four weeks of cranial electrotherapy stimulation
|
Presence and severity of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms will be assessed before and after four weeks of CES on the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5).
Scale ranges from 0 to 80 with higher scores indicating greater severity of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms.
|
Pre and post four weeks of cranial electrotherapy stimulation
|
Functional resting state connectivity assessed with magnetic resonance imaging connectivity
Time Frame: Pre and post four weeks of cranial electrotherapy stimulation
|
Strength of functional resting state connectivity between thalamus and (ventro)medial prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, posterior cingulate cortex, and precuneus will be assessed with functional resting state magnetic resonance imaging.
|
Pre and post four weeks of cranial electrotherapy stimulation
|
Collaborators and Investigators
This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.
Sponsor
Investigators
- Principal Investigator: Mascha van 't Wout-Frank, PhD, Butler Hospital
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)
April 27, 2024
Primary Completion (Estimated)
January 31, 2025
Study Completion (Estimated)
January 31, 2025
Study Registration Dates
First Submitted
November 8, 2023
First Submitted That Met QC Criteria
January 2, 2024
First Posted (Actual)
January 12, 2024
Study Record Updates
Last Update Posted (Actual)
April 2, 2024
Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria
April 1, 2024
Last Verified
April 1, 2024
More Information
Terms related to this study
Keywords
Other Study ID Numbers
- 2091269
Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)
Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?
NO
Drug and device information, study documents
Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product
No
Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product
Yes
product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.
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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