Rapid Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation for Hoarding Disorder (TMS-HOLA)

April 21, 2026 updated by: Carolyn Rodriguez, Stanford University
This study explores whether rapid non-invasive brain stimulation can help reduce hoarding disorder symptoms.

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Hoarding disorder (HD) is characterized by difficulty letting go of possessions, leading to clutter that congests living spaces and impairs daily functioning. The majority of HD patients treated with cognitive behavioral therapy for HD usually experience considerable residual symptoms. New treatments are greatly needed. This study explores whether rapid non-invasive brain stimulation can help reduce hoarding disorder symptoms.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

10

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

  • United States
    • California
      • Palo Alto, California, United States, 94305
        • Recruiting
        • Stanford University Medical Center
        • Principal Investigator:
          • Carolyn Rodriguez, MD, PhD
        • Contact:

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
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  1. Age 18-70 years
  2. Primary diagnosis of hoarding disorder
  3. Sufficient severity of hoarding symptoms
  4. Willing and able to understand and complete consent and study procedures

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Psychiatric or medical conditions or medications that make participation unsafe
  2. Pregnant or nursing females
  3. Previous exposure to TMS or ECT
  4. History of any implanted device or psychosurgery

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: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Theta-burst stimulation (TBS)
Theta-burst stimulation (a form of transcranial magnetic stimulation) targeting the right frontal pole.
Device: MagPro X100 by MagVenture
Participants will receive 5 session per day of TBS for 6 days (30 sessions total). Six treatment days have to occur within a 2 week period. Each session will be comprised of 1800 pulses, using a MagVenture MagPro X100.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in Compulsive Acquisition Scale (CAS)
Time Frame: Change from baseline to 3 weeks after treatment starts

The Compulsive Acquisition Scale (CAS) is an 18-item questionnaire that measures the extent to which individuals acquire and feel compelled to acquire possessions.

The total score (sum of 18 items) ranges from 0 to 126. Total score higher than 48 shows significant difficulty with acquiring.
Change from baseline to 3 weeks after treatment starts

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in Hoarding Symptom Severity as Measured by Saving Inventory-Revised (SI-R)
Time Frame: Change from baseline to 3 weeks after treatment starts

The Saving Inventory-Revised scale (SI-R) is a 23-item questionnaire with 3 factor-analytically defined sub-scales for difficulty discarding, excessive clutter, and compulsive acquisition.

The total score (sum of 23 items) ranges from 0 to 92. Total score higher than 41 shows significant difficulty with clutter.

For the acquisition subscale, items 2 (reverse score), 9, 11, 14, 16, 18 and 21 are summed together. The subscale ranges from 0 to 28 and score greater than 13 indicates difficulty with excessive acquisition.

For the difficulty discarding subscale, items 4(reverse score), 6, 7, 13, 17, 19, 23 are summed together. The subscale ranges from 0 to 28 and score greater than 13 indicates difficulty with discarding.

For the clutter subscale, items 1, 3, 5, 8, 10, 12, 15, 20, 22 are summed together. The subscale ranges from 0 to 36 and score greater than 15 indicates difficulty with accumulated clutter.
Change from baseline to 3 weeks after treatment starts

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Stanford University

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Carolyn I Rodriguez, MD, PhD, Stanford University

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.

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)

March 27, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

December 31, 2027

Study Completion (Estimated)

January 1, 2028

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

November 27, 2024

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 27, 2024

First Posted (Actual)

December 2, 2024

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

April 22, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 21, 2026

Last Verified

April 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 77098

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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