An interventional study of Caloric Vestibular Stimulation in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Body Dysmorphic Disorders and Illness Anxiety Disorder, sponsored by Stanford University. Recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 65 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-01-22.
Sponsored by Stanford University · Not applicable, Interventional, and Other
This study investigates whether caloric vestibular stimulation can modulate a measure of insight in obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorders.
Obsessive-compulsive and related disorders (OCRD), including obsessive compulsive disorder and body dysmorphic disorder, are chronic and disabling conditions characterized by recurrent intrusive thoughts and associated compulsive behaviors that affect millions of individuals in the US each year. Individuals affected by OCRD differ in insight, or the degree to which they understand their intrusive thoughts to reflect illness. Impairments in insight limit individuals' motivation to engage in care and predict worse outcome in those who access treatment.
This study seeks to explore whether unilateral stimulation of the vestibular system, which activates cortical areas hypothesized to underlie clinical insight, may beneficially modulate insight in individuals with OCRD.
635 studies on the registry are indexed under Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder; 166 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 16 is below the median of 45 across 520 interventional studies indexed under Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.
Browse Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder studies →Stanford University is the lead sponsor of 2,168 studies on the registry; 431 are open to participants now.
Of its 267 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 207 (78%) have results posted.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
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Exclusion Criteria:
Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
Informed consent
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
OCRD participants in this arm will receive an approx 60 second infusion of distilled cold(4)c water in their right external ear canal, with before and after measures of OCRD symptom severity and insight.
Other: Caloric Vestibular Stimulation
OCRD participants in this arm will receive an approx 60 second infusion of distilled cold(4)c water in their left external ear canal, with before and after measures of OCRD symptom severity and insight.
Other: Caloric Vestibular Stimulation
Cold water creates a convection current in the semicircular canal of the vestibular apparatus, leading to brief (\<3 min) and typically well tolerated sense of rotational movement. Similar stimulation is routinely used in standard vestibular diagnostic testing.
change in clinical insight as measured by the Brown Assessment of Beliefs (BABS).
Changes in clinical insight will be rated using the BABS, a gold-standard measure for assessing multiple dimensions of clinical insight across psychiatric disorders. The BABS is a 24 point scale for which scores ≥13 suggest poor or absent insight.
Time frame: 1 hour
Started May 2022 (actual). Primary completion is estimated for Dec 2026, 55 months after the start.
Of 234 non-industry interventional studies with no phase under Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, half reached primary completion within 43 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 22 and three quarters within 65. This study's planned 55 months is above that.
Counting every sponsor, half of 237 studies reached it within 43 months; a quarter within 22 and three quarters within 65.
How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.
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Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder →