Causal Role of Delta-beta Coupling for Goal-directed Behavior in Anhedonic Depression — DBA  

Major Depressive Disorder Clinical Trial

Official title: Causal Role of Delta-beta Coupling for Goal-directed Behavior in Anhedonic Depression

Status Recruiting

Clinical Trial Summary

Anhedonia, the inability to seek-out and experience pleasure, is a common symptom in depression that predicts treatment-resistance and is sometimes exacerbated by first-line antidepressants. In our previous research, we found that anhedonia decreases goal-directed behavior and its related neural activity. In this study, we will investigate target engagement from five-consecutive days of stimulation for participants that are within a unipolar major depressive episode and also have high symptoms of anhedonia.

Clinical Trial Description

The experiment comprises eight sessions total. People that request to be in the experiment will first complete demographic and self-report clinical assessments. People that meet our eligibility criteria will be invited to participate in the study. In the first session, clinical assessment are administered to determine eligibility for the full study. In the second session, participants complete a functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) session in which they complete three different reward-based decision-making tasks. After the MRI session, participants are randomized into one of three parallel arms to receive five consecutive days of cross-frequency transcranial alternating current stimulation (CF-tACS) in either delta-beta, control-frequency (theta-gamma), or placebo (sham) CF-tACS. In the third through seventh session, participants receive 40 minutes of CF-tACS while completing goal-setting and action planning worksheets. Before the first session of CF-tACS (the third session overall) and the last session of CF-tACS (the seventh session overall), participants complete brief self-report clinical assessments. On the third and seventh session (the first and fifth day of CF-tACS), the participant will complete the reward-based decision-making tasks prior to stimulation while EEG is recorded. In these two sessions, resting-state EEG is acquired before and after stimulation. The first and fifth session of tACS (third and seventh session overall) will take approximately three hours to complete. The second through fourth session of tACS (fourth through sixth session overall) will take approximately one hour to complete. In the follow-up session, visit 8, (approximately two weeks after the end of the five-days of stimulation), participants return for an in-person session that includes self-report clinical assessments and EEG during the reward-based decision-making tasks. ;

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Anhedonia
• Depressive Disorder
• Depressive Disorder, Major
• Major Depressive Disorder

• NCT number: NCT06132581
• Study type: Interventional
• Source: Florida State University
• Contact: Justin M Riddle, PhD
• Phone: 850-645-2389
• Email: jriddle@fsu.edu
• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: January 24, 2024
• Completion date: July 31, 2026