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Neurostimulation

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) for Schizophrenia

N/A

Waitlist Available

Led By Philip R Corlett, PhD

Research Sponsored by Yale University

Eligibility Criteria Checklist

Specific guidelines that determine who can or cannot participate in a clinical trial

Must have

Be between 18 and 65 years old

Timeline

Screening 3 weeks

Treatment Varies

Follow Up approximately 13 months

Awards & highlights

Study Summary

This trial is testing whether TMS can help people with psychosis by manipulating the neural loci of conditioned hallucination task behavior. If successful, this could be used as a biomarker for predicting or treating hallucinations.

Eligible Conditions

Schizophrenia
Schizoaffective Disorder
Auditory Hallucinations

Timeline

Screening ~ 3 weeks3 visits

Treatment ~ Varies

Follow Up ~ approximately 13 months

Screening ~ 3 weeks

Treatment ~ Varies

Follow Up ~approximately 13 months

This trial's timeline: 3 weeks for screening, Varies for treatment, and approximately 13 months for reporting.

Treatment Details

Study Objectives

Outcome measures can provide a clearer picture of what you can expect from a treatment.

Primary outcome measures

Conditioned Hallucinations Task Performance

Trial Design

2Treatment groups

Active Control

Group I: TMS to cerebellumActive Control1 Intervention

This study will recruit a further 70 clinical voice hearers. Again, they will complete parallel forms of the conditioned hallucinations task on two occasions, separated by a week. They will receive excitatory TMS over the cerebellum (and sham on the other occasion, in a randomized counterbalanced order). Hypotheses: Exciting the cerebellum will increase belief-updating. If poor belief-updating contributes to conditioned hallucinations, increasing cerebellum engagement should decrease conditioned hallucinations and alter the belief-updating model parameter compared with sham TMS.

Group II: TMS to insulaActive Control1 Intervention

This study will recruit 30 clinical voice hearers (P+H+). They will complete two parallel forms of the conditioned hallucinations task (with different visual and auditory stimuli) on two occasions, separated by a week. TMS and sham will be delivered in a randomized counterbalanced order. Hypothesis: Inhibiting the insula will decrease prior over-weighting. If this computational perturbation is responsible for conditioned hallucinations, then ameliorating it with TMS that increases insula engagement will decrease conditioned hallucination responses. Furthermore, the prior weighting parameter will be reduced following active TMS compared with sham.

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Find a Location

Who is running the clinical trial?

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)NIH

2,782 Previous Clinical Trials

2,689,106 Total Patients Enrolled

248 Trials studying Schizophrenia

89,423 Patients Enrolled for Schizophrenia

Yale UniversityLead Sponsor

1,847 Previous Clinical Trials

2,736,527 Total Patients Enrolled

59 Trials studying Schizophrenia

4,018 Patients Enrolled for Schizophrenia

Philip R Corlett, PhDPrincipal InvestigatorYale School of Medicine

2 Previous Clinical Trials

239 Total Patients Enrolled

2 Trials studying Schizophrenia

239 Patients Enrolled for Schizophrenia

Frequently Asked Questions

These questions and answers are submitted by anonymous patients, and have not been verified by our internal team.

Does the entrance criteria for this clinical trial restrict participation to those under sixty years of age?

"The age requirement for this trial is those 18 years and older but not exceeding 45."

Answered by AI

How many individuals are taking part in this trial?

"Affirmative, according to the clinicaltrials.gov repository this trial is currently seeking participants - it was first posted on February 27th 2020 and updated most recently on February 8th 2022. They require 100 volunteers at a single medical centre."

Answered by AI

Are any additional participants still being considered for this research effort?

"Affirmative. According to the clinicaltrials.gov website, this medical research is actively recruiting participants as of 2/8/2022 and was initially posted on February 27th 2020. The trial is aiming to enroll 100 patients at a single site."

Answered by AI

Is there a specific criteria for admission into this research project?

"This research project is looking for 100 individuals with schizophrenia aged between 18 and 45. Those hoping to be accepted must meet the DSM-V diagnostic criteria, experience auditory hallucinations at least daily, score higher than 3 on PANSS P3's hallucination item."

Answered by AI

Recent research and studies

Archives of General PsychiatryJournal

Psychotic Symptoms in Adolescence Index Risk for Suicidal Behavior

Kelleher, Ian, Fionnuala Lynch, Michelle Harley, Charlene Molloy, Sarah Roddy, Carol Fitzpatrick, and Mary Cannon. 2012. “Psychotic Symptoms in Adolescence Index Risk for Suicidal Behavior”. Archives of General Psychiatry. American Medical Association (AMA). doi:10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2012.164.

Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and NeuroimagingJournal

Hallucinations as Top-down Effects on Perception

Powers, Albert R., III, Megan Kelley, and Philip R. Corlett. 2016. “Hallucinations as Top-down Effects on Perception”. Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging. Elsevier BV. doi:10.1016/j.bpsc.2016.04.003.

Schizophrenia BulletinJournal

Varieties of Voice-hearing: Psychics and the Psychosis Continuum

Powers, Albert R., III, Megan S. Kelley, and Philip R. Corlett. 2016. “Varieties of Voice-hearing: Psychics and the Psychosis Continuum”. Schizophrenia Bulletin. Oxford University Press (OUP). doi:10.1093/schbul/sbw133.

Depression and AnxietyJournal