NCT00870909

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) and Hallucinations in Schizophrenia

Anodal & Cathodal tDCS for Treatment of Resistant Auditory Hallucinations in Schizophrenia

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 46 (actual)
• Sponsor: Hôpital le Vinatier · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 50 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

The purpose of this study is to determine whether trans Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) is effective in the treatment of auditory hallucinations in schizophrenia.

Detailed description

The project will investigate the use of a novel technique, transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in the treatment of patients with schizophrenia. tDCS permit the application of an extremely weak continuous electrical current to the brain through an anode and a cathode applied on the scalp. Anodal stimulation appears to increase brain activity whereas cathodal stimulation has the opposite effect. Using anodal \& cathodal tDCS the investigators aimed to treat auditory hallucinations, a symptoms of schizophrenia. The investigators plan to apply tDCS such that it can simultaneously increased activity in the frontal brain areas and reduce activity over temporoparietal cortex, 2 areas involved in the physiopathology of the disease. Real active stimulation will be compare to a sham condition in 60 patients (30 in each group). 30 patients will be included in a French center (Hospital le Vinatier, sponsor of the study) and 30 in Tunisia (laboratory "vulnerability to psychosis" (Pr Gaha) à Monastir).

Conditions

• Schizophrenia
• Auditory Hallucinations

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
PROCEDURE	active tDCS	Intensity 2 mA during 20 minutes, 2 times per day
PROCEDURE	sham tDCS	sham condition as delivered by the stimulator

Timeline

• Start date: 2009-02-02
• Primary completion: 2016-04-21
• Completion: 2016-07-20
• First posted: 2009-03-27
• Last updated: 2017-03-01

Locations

2 sites across 2 countries: France, Tunisia