Delusions clinical trials

Enhancement of Treatment of Delusions in Schizophrenia Through Neuromodulation

The proposed study aims to use a form of neuromodulation, known as transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS), to improve the effectiveness of the metacognitive training (MCT) program for treatment of delusions in schizophrenia. tACS is a non-invasive brain stimulation method utilizing weak electrical currents applied to the head to influence neural firing (Antal & Paulus, 2013). Brain regions implicated in delusional thinking will be targeted in the hopes of promoting thinking patterns that will allow participants to question delusional beliefs, reducing the severity of delusions and increasing the positive effects of MCT (Whitman et al., in press; Whitman, Minz & Woodward, 2013). Electroencephalogram (EEG) and behavioural assessments will be used to measure treatment effects. However, before tACS will be administered to individuals experiencing delusions associated with schizophrenia we will conduct various control-phase (pilot) studies to gain a better understanding on how tACS temporarily alters performance on cognitive processes by biasing dominant patterns of oscillations. The objective of the pilot studies is to establish the effectiveness of the EGI GTEN system in modulating brain oscillations in the cortex of healthy participants by means of transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS). In this control/pilot phase of our study, we aim to establish that we can induce changes in the power of a specific frequency band in targeted cortical regions with neuromodulation using the GTEN system, and we will assess whether doing so temporarily alters performance on simple cognitive and perceptual processes in healthy controls. This will be the first step towards translating our stimulation protocol to the patient population for our primary study of interest (tACS as an adjunct to metacognitive training for delusions in psychosis).