NCT07399496

Accelerated TMS for Apathy in PD

Accelerated Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) for Apathy in Parkinson's Disease

• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 15 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Medical University of South Carolina · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 45 Years – 85 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

This single-site, open-label pilot study will evaluate the feasibility, tolerability, and preliminary efficacy of accelerated intermittent theta-burst stimulation (iTBS) targeting the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) for apathy in individuals with Parkinson's Disease (PD). Fifteen participants with PD and clinically significant apathy will undergo six treatment visits over two weeks, receiving eight iTBS sessions per day. Outcomes include adherence, tolerability, changes in apathy (Lille Apathy Rating Scale), functional engagement, and neural target engagement assessed via resting-state fMRI and EEG. Follow-up assessments will occur at two and four weeks post-treatment.

Detailed description

This study is designed to explore a new treatment option for people with Parkinson's disease who experience apathy, which means loss of motivation or interest in daily activities. Apathy is common in Parkinson's disease and can lower quality of life, but current treatments are limited. Investigators are testing whether a non-invasive brain stimulation technique called repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is tolerable, acceptable and can be used to improve apathy in patients with Parkinson's disease. TMS delivers brief magnetic pulses to specific areas of the brain that are linked to motivation and decision-making. In this study, Investigators will use an "accelerated" version of TMS, which gives several short sessions in a single day, reducing the number of visits required. The purpose of this research is to see whether this treatment approach is feasible, tolerable and and potentially effective at treating apathy in people with Parkinson's disease. If successful, this research study will hopefully lead to a larger study in the future where the efficacy of the treatments can be studied.

Conditions

• Parkinson Disease

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DEVICE	Accelerated intermittent theta-burst stimulation (iTBS) rTMS to left dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC)	Accelerated intermittent theta-burst stimulation (iTBS) rTMS to left dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) (MagVenture MagPro with cooled figure-of-eight coil; Brainsight neuronavigation; 120% rMT; 6 treatment days over \~2 weeks; 8 sessions/day; 600 pulses/session; 10-15 min inter-session interval).

Timeline

• Start date: 2026-06-01
• Primary completion: 2027-03-01
• Completion: 2027-03-01
• First posted: 2026-02-10
• Last updated: 2026-03-27

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States

Regulatory

• FDA-regulated device study