TerminatedNot Applicable

SMA Targeted Magnetic Stimulation Against Auditory Verbal Hallucinations

Stopped: Slow recruitment

Sweden46 participantsStarted 2020-11-02

Plain-language summary

Auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH) are prevalent among patients with psychiatric disorders. Not only being highly stressful and functionally impairing, AVH often persist despite treatment. Recent attempts to treat AVH with add-on repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) when targeting the temporoparietal junction (TPJ), a language node in the brain, has gained limited success. The aim of this investigation is to reduce AVH with rTMS using continous theta-burst stimulation over a novel target, the supplementary motor area (SMA), in participants with frequent AVH, while also assessing potential neurophysiological mechanisms underlying the symptom.

Who can participate

Age range18 Years – 59 Years

SexALL

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Inclusion Criteria: Inclusion criteria for the AVH group: * Reported AVH with a minimum frequency of at least daily occurrence, with onset more than one month ago * Stable psychopharmacological treatment past month Inclusion criteria for the non-AVH control group * Reporting no occurrences of AVH for the past year * Stable psychopharmacological treatment past month Inclusion criteria for the healthy control group * No life-time occurrence of AVH * No history of psychiatric disorders as assessed with a Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (M.I.N.I.) Exclusion Criteria: * Ferromagnetic or electromagnetic implants that may pose a risk during magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and/or cTBS * A history of epilepsy * Pregnancy * Current substance use disorder or a history of alcohol use disorder as assessed with Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), Drug Use Disorders Identification Test (DUDIT), urine samples with test for illicit drugs and Phosphatidylethanol (PEth) * Daily benzodiazepine use * Factors that make the participant unlikely to be able to complete the study

What they're measuring

Amplitude on EEG in speech-listen task

Timeframe: 5-30 minutes after intervention

Change on The Psychotic Symptom Rating Scales (PSYRATS)

Timeframe: 1 day after completion of open treatment phase

Trial details

NCT IDNCT04651621

SponsorUppsala University

Sponsor typeOTHER

Study typeINTERVENTIONAL

Primary completion2024-02-01