Cerebellar Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation in Parkinson's Disease (cTDCSinPD)

April 21, 2026 updated by: Pierre Cabaraux, Université Libre de Bruxelles

Can Cerebellar Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation be Regarded as a Rational Therapeutic Option for Treating Parkinson's Disease ?

Background & Rationale:

Treatment options for Parkinson's Disease (PD) often face challenges due to the variety of clinical subtypes, differing individual responses, and disease progression. Given its portability, affordability, safety, and ease of use, cerebellar transcranial direct current stimulation (ctDCS) presents as a promising option for home-based treatment with medical telemonitoring in the near future.

Study Procedures:

Participants are invited to complete questionnaires regarding quality of life, anxiety and depression, and symptoms related to their PD.

On the first day, they will be assessed using the Movement Disorder Society - Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS) Part III for motor impairment and the Cerebellar Cognitive Affective Syndrome scale (CCAS) for cognitive impairment. Participants will then undergo an additional 8 days of at-home cTDCS stimulation. On the 10th day, they will be reassessed using the MDS-UPDRS III and CCAS. One month later, they will complete again the questionnaires regarding quality of life, anxiety, depression, and symptoms related to their PD.

Objective:

Consequently, the primary goal is to investigate the effectiveness of ctDCS in addressing both motor and non-motor symptoms of PD

Study Overview

Status

Enrolling by invitation

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

25

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

  • Belgium
      • Brussels, Belgium, 1070
        • Hôpital Erasme

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:

  • Patients with mild to moderate PD MDS-UPDRS part 1III or between 1 and 3 on Hoehn and Yahr score
  • Patients > 18 years of agE
  • Patients who have signed written informed consent

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Pregnant women
  • Patients ≤ 18 years of age
  • Presence of intracranial metallic hardware (e.g., vascular clips, orthopedic material)
  • Presence of an implanted electronic device (e.g., pacemaker, cochlear implants, deep brain stimulator)
  • History of epileptic seizures
  • Active or past neurological condition affecting upper limb control (e.g., stroke, degenerative disease, tumor, traumatic sequelae), or any neuromuscular (e.g., upper limb polyneuropathy, myopathy) or orthopedic condition impairing upper limb motor control
  • Subject unable to understand or perform the required motor tasks
  • Psychotropic polypharmacy (regular use of neuroleptics, anti-epileptics, benzodiazepines, etc.)

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
Experimental: anodal cTDCS group
Device: cTDCS
anodal cTDCS
Device: cTDCS
cathodal cTDCS
Active Comparator: cathodal cTDCS group
Device: cTDCS
anodal cTDCS
Device: cTDCS
cathodal cTDCS

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
MDS-UPDRS (Unit on a scale)
Time Frame: day 1 to day 10 (MDS-UPDRS III) day 1 to day 40 (MDS-UPDRS Part I, II and IV)
MDS-UPDRS Part III MDS-UPDRS Part I, II and IV
day 1 to day 10 (MDS-UPDRS III) day 1 to day 40 (MDS-UPDRS Part I, II and IV)
CCAS (Unit on a scale)
Time Frame: day 1 and day 10
CCAS scale
day 1 and day 10

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Feasibility and tolerability of ctDCS (Unit on a scale)
Time Frame: from day 1 to day 10
participant-reported outcomes regarding the ease of self-administration and the presence of side effects are collected through a dedicated questionnaire.
from day 1 to day 10
Scale evaluation anxiety (Unit on a scale)
Time Frame: day 1 and day 40
anxiety as evaluated by Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7)
day 1 and day 40
Scale evaluating depression (Unit on a scale)
Time Frame: day 1 and day 40
depression as evaluated by Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9 )
day 1 and day 40
Quality of life (Unit on a scale)
Time Frame: day 1 and day 40
quality of life as evaluated by Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire-39 (PDQ-39)
day 1 and day 40
Scale evaluation anxiety (Unit on a scale)
Time Frame: day 1 and day 40
anxiety as evaluated by Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI)
day 1 and day 40
Scale evaluating depression (Unit on a scale)
Time Frame: day 1 and day 40
depression as evaluated by Beck Depression Inventory (BDI)
day 1 and day 40
Quality of life (Unit on a scale)
Time Frame: day 1 and day 40
quality of life as evaluated by European Quality of Life 5 Dimensions (EQ-5D)
day 1 and day 40

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Université Libre de Bruxelles

Collaborators

Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique (fnrs)

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

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 24, 2025

Primary Completion (Estimated)

November 1, 2026

Study Completion (Estimated)

November 1, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

April 1, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 21, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

April 23, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

April 23, 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

  • B40620224000258 ; P2024/328

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

IPD Plan Description

anonymous.

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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