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Treatment of Refractory Auditory Verbal Hallucinations With tDCS in Schizophrenia

A Pilot Study for the Treatment of Refractory Auditory Verbal Hallucinations With Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation(tDCS) in Patients With Schizophrenia

Status
Completed
Phases
Phase 1Phase 2
Study type
Interventional
Source
ClinicalTrials.gov
Registry ID
NCT02451371
Enrollment
10
Registered
2015-05-22
Start date
2016-08-31
Completion date
2016-12-31
Last updated
2016-12-30

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Schizophrenia

Keywords

Schizophrenia, Refractory auditory hallucination, tDCS

Brief summary

The purpose of this study is to exploratively evaluate the efficacy and safety of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in patients with schizophrenia who experience persistent auditory verbal hallucinations after adequate antipsychotics therapy for over three months.

Interventions

DEVICEtDCS

2mA direct current, 20 minutes per session, 2 sessions per day with at least 3hours interval between sessions, a total of 10 tDCS sessions

Sponsors

Seoul National University Hospital
Lead SponsorOTHER

Study design

Allocation
NA
Intervention model
SINGLE_GROUP
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE

Eligibility

Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
19 Years to 50 Years
Healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

* Patients with schizophrenia by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth edition, Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR) * Presence of auditory hallucination after three months' trial of antipsychotics of adequate dose * The Hamilton Program for Schizophrenia Voices Questionnaire (HPSVQ) score is at least 8

Exclusion criteria

* Significant brain pathology including head trauma, seizure, meningitis * Intellectual disability (IQ \< 70) * Severe personality disorder * Substance use disorder (except nicotine) * Severe medical illness * Disability in the sensory organs * Pregnancy

Design outcomes

Primary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Auditory hallucination change by changes in The Psychotic Symptom Rating Scales (PSYRATs) Auditory hallucinations subscale scoreapproximately 2 weeksAuditory hallucination change by changes in the auditory hallucinations subscale from the Psychotic Symptom Rating Scales

Secondary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Electroencephalography - restingapproximately 2 weeks* change in lagged phase synchronization value * change in microstate connectivity value
Electroencephalography - P300 peakapproximately 2 weeks* change in P300 peak amplitude during auditory oddball task * change in P300 peak latency during auditory oddball task
Electroencephalography - P300 sourceapproximately 2 weeks* change in P300 source strength during auditory oddball task * change in P300 source location during auditory oddball task
Electroencephalography - P50approximately 2 weeks* change in T/C ratio (testing stimulus/conditioning stimulus) during paired click test * change in T/C difference (conditioning stimulus-testing stimulus) during paired click test * change in T/C difference (testing stimulus - conditioning stimulus) during paired click test
Electroencephalography - ERN (error-related negativity) peakapproximately 2 weeks* change in ERN peak amplitude during flanker task * change in ERN peak latency during flanker task
Electroencephalography - ERN (error-related negativity) sourceapproximately 2 weeks* change in ERN source strength during flanker task * change in ERN source location during flanker task
Electroencephalography - ERN (error-related negativity) frequency activityapproximately 2 weeks* change in ERN beta band activity during flanker task * change in ERN theta band activity during flanker task * change in ERN delta band activity during flanker task
Brain Magnetic Resonance Image (MRI) - T1 Image grey matter thicknessapproximately 2 weekschange in grey matter thickness
Brain Magnetic Resonance Image (MRI) - T1 Image grey matter volumeapproximately 2 weekschange in grey matter volume
Brain MRI - Diffusion Tensor Image (DTI) radial diffusivityapproximately 2 weekschange in radial diffusivity
Brain MRI - Diffusion Tensor Image (DTI) functional anisotropyapproximately 2 weekschange in fractional anisotropy
Brain MRI - Diffusion Tensor Image (DTI) mean diffusivityapproximately 2 weekschange in mean diffusivity
Brain MRI - Diffusion Tensor Image (DTI) axial diffusivityapproximately 2 weekschange in axial diffusivity
Brain MRI - myelin imageapproximately 2 weekschange in myelin imaging intensity value
Kicer values change with treatment in striatum assessed by 18F-DOPA Positron Emission Tomography (PET)approximately 2 weeks\- Kicer values change with treatment in striatum
Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS)approximately 2 weeks\- N-Acetyl Aspartate, Creatin, Choline, Myoinositol, Glutamate, Glutamine, GABA metabolite concentration change with treatment
Auditory hallucination change by changes in the Auditory Hallucination Rating Scale (AHRS) scoreapproximately 2 weeksAuditory hallucination change by changes in the Auditory Hallucination Rating Scale score
Auditory hallucination change by changes in the Korean Version of Hamilton Program for Schizophrenia Voices Questionnaire (HPSVQ) scoreapproximately 2 weeksAuditory hallucination change by changes in the Korean Version of Hamilton Program for Schizophrenia Voices Questionnaire score
Brain MRI - functional MRIapproximately 2 weekschange in Pearson's correlation coefficient of BOLD signals

Countries

South Korea

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Feb 4, 2026