Adults 18 to 65, any sex, with Depression or Major Depressive Disorder. Patients with the condition only — healthy volunteers not accepted.
Results — posted to ClinicalTrials.gov
Per-arm endpoint measurements with 95% confidence intervals where reported. Source: trial results section.
Change in Alpha Frequency Electrical Activity in Left Frontal Cortex From StimulationPrimary· 5 minute recording before and after intervention
Fast Fourier transform is applied to 5 minutes of EEG data before and after intervention. Primary outcome is the difference in alpha frequency amplitude (8-12 Hz) in the left frontal cortex from baseline as a result of intervention.
Group
Value
95% CI
Alpha Stimulation in Participants in a Depressive Episode
-0.005
± 0.022
Sham Stimulation in Participants in a Depressive Episode
0.008
± 0.023
Alpha Stimulation in Healthy Participants
0.004
± 0.017
Sham Stimulation in Healthy Participants
0.007
± 0.022
Adverse events — posted to ClinicalTrials.gov
Time frame: Adverse events were collected over the 5 hours of the single session experiment.
Reporting threshold: 0%.
Adverse-event reports describe events observed during the trial — not all are caused by the drug.
Alpha Stimulation in Patients in a Depressive Episode
Serious: 0/21 (0%)
Deaths: 0/21
Sham Stimulation in Patients in a Depressive Episode
Purpose: Investigating the effects of non-invasive transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) on healthy participants and participants with mood disorders.
Participants: 40 males and females, ages 18-65, with depressed mood; 40 healthy males and females, ages 18-65, free of neurological or psychiatric conditions.
Procedures: This is a single visit study with two stimulation conditions (tACS and sham tACS). The session will begin with clinical assessments (including confirmation of diagnosis), followed by an interactive EEG task, then a 7 minute resting state EEG (2 minutes eyes closed, 5 minutes eyes open), followed by the stimulation session (40 minutes of tACS or sham tACS), followed by an additional 5 minute resting state EEG. The stimulation will involved 40 minutes of transcranial alternating current stimulation, 2 mA in amplitude and at individualized alpha frequency (determined by the 2 minutes eyes closed EEG recording; between 8 and 12Hz).
Publications & conference data
3 peer-reviewed publications reference this trial (live from Europe PMC):
NCT03243084 — Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation in Back Pain- Pilot Sudy
· NA
· completed
NCT03178344 — Effect of tACS Stimulation on Alpha Oscillations
· NA
· completed
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Other University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill trials
Publications: Europe PMC API search by NCT ID, retrieved 9 June 2026
Drug + disease cross-links: matched in real time against Drug Landscape's normalised drug + company + condition tables
Sponsor: as reported to ClinicalTrials.gov by University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Last refreshed: 4 June 2020
Drug Landscape aggregates and links these public records for informational use only. Always verify against the primary source before clinical or regulatory decisions. Canonical URL: https://druglandscape.com/trial/NCT03449979.