NCT06061653

Augmentation of Interpersonal Psychotherapy With High-Definition Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation for Adolescent Depression

Status unknown NA Last updated 31 October 2023

What this trial tests

NA trial testing IPT plus HD-tDCS in Depressive Disorder in 60 participants. Status unknown.

Timeline

1 October 2023

Primary endpoint
31 December 2024

31 December 2025

Quick facts

Lead sponsor	First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University
Phase	NA
Status	Status unknown
Study type	INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation	randomized
Design	parallel
Masking	double
Primary purpose	treatment
Enrollment	60
Start date	1 October 2023
Primary completion	31 December 2024
Estimated completion	31 December 2025
Sites	1 location across China

Drugs / interventions tested

• IPT plus HD-tDCS
• IPT plus sham HD-tDCS

Conditions studied

• Depressive Disorder — all drugs for Depressive Disorder →

Sponsor

First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University

Who can join

Adults 12 to 18, any sex, with Depressive Disorder. Patients with the condition only — healthy volunteers not accepted.

Sponsor's own description

Depression is among the most prevalent psychiatric disorders, with an upward trend in its manifestation in younger individuals. In contrast to adult depression, adolescent depression often presents with longer attack durations, higher recurrence rates, chronicity, and elevated disability rates. At present, treatment options for adolescent depression encompass pharmacological, physical, and psychological therapies. However, current evidence suggests that no antidepressant medication is entirely safe for youths, with only fluoxetine and escitalopram being FDA-approved for treating adolescent depression.

Given the weight of interpersonal stressors faced by teenagers, the NICE guidelines recommend interpersonal therapy(IPT) as a first-line treatment. A 2020 meta-analysis in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry reported that interpersonal therapy exhibited significantly greater improvements in depression symptoms than cognitive behavioral therapy(CBT), although psychotherapeutic effects were modest, achieving a remission rate of 60%. These results underscore the need for further research to enhance interpersonal therapy's effectiveness in treating adolescent depression.

High-Definition Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (HD-tDCS）is a highly secure non-invasive brain stimulation technique that produces sustained effects even after stimulation has discontinued, rendering it particularly valuable for therapeutic interventions. The proposed study aims to augment a single IPT treatment with HD-tDCS stimulation for adolescent depression. By enhancing the excitability of the cerebral cortex, HD-tDCS could potentially enhance IPT's therapeutic efficacy in treating adolescent depression while facilitating further investigation of its underlying neural circuit mechanisms.

Publications & conference data

1 peer-reviewed publication reference this trial (live from Europe PMC):

1. Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) in the Treatment of Youth Depression: Integrating Literature Review Insights in a Pilot Clinical Trial.
   Lo HKY, Yuen SY, Tsui IWT, Yeung WF, et al · · 2025 · PMID 40364182 · DOI 10.3390/jcm14093152