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CompletedNCT04128397Updated Aug 5, 2022

An Exploratory Study of Continuous Theta Burst Stimulation (cTBS) Based on fMRI in the Treatment of Tic Disorder

An interventional study of traditional stimulation site continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) and precise stimulation site cTBS in Tic Disorders and Tourette Syndrome, sponsored by Second Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University. Completed at 2 sites in China. Open to participants aged 6 Years to 20 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2022-08-05.

Primary conditionTourette SyndromeRegistry: Tic DisordersReclassifiedWhy we changed it
Registry
Tic Disorders — the first condition term the registry derived for this study.
ClinicalTrials.gg
Tourette Syndrome
Why
  1. The study's listed conditions name Tourette Syndrome, a narrower term within Tic Disorders.
Confidence
High: the new condition is named in the study's own listed conditions. Of 351 hand-checked studies reclassified this way, 68% were exactly right and 84% in the right disease family; the registry's first term was right for 5% (measured 2026-10-21). How we classify →
Wrong?
Tell us the study's main condition →

Sponsored by Second Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment

From the registry’s dates

  • Registered 1 year 3 months after the study started (first participant enrolled Jun 2018, registered Oct 2019).
Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
95
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
6 Years to 20 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) is a safe and effective device for Gilles de la Tourette's syndrome treatment. GPi is an agreed curative target of deep brain stimulation. GPi-based functional connectivity peak voxel in the SMA can be the cTBS target.

Read the detailed description

Tic disorder is a common neuropsychiatric disorder in children and adolescents. Medication is not effective and has side effect. Exploring new treatment methods is one of the research pathway of this disease.Continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) is relatively safe and effective, and its efficacy in psychiatric diseases has been gradually recognized. However, the results of current researches of tic disorder treatment are varied, and the evaluation method is relatively single. This project intends to adopt fmri-guided stimulation target and navigated cTBS to intervene patients with tics and explore individualized cTBS treatment parameters of tics, including stimulation frequency, intensity, type, time and stimulation target. Previous studies for deep brain stimulation reported that the medial globus pallidus (GPi) showed an obvious curative effect. And a deep brain area can be modulated indirectly by a superficial target via functional connectivity. Therefore, the present study attempts to stimulate the superficial target in supplementary motor area (SMA), lateral motor area (M1) which functionally connected with GPi or thalamus since the thalamus also a commonly reported abnormal brain area of Tic. Combined with clinical symptoms and neuroimaging, the therapeutic effect of cTBS in children with tic disorder was comprehensively evaluated in order to provide a new therapeutic method and a better therapeutic effect for the disease.

02

Conditions studied

  • Tic Disorders
  • Tourette Syndrome

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Keywords

  • continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS)
  • fMRI
03

In context

Tourette Syndrome Reclassified

240 studies on the registry are indexed under Tourette Syndrome; 40 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 95 is above the median of 36 across 183 interventional studies indexed under Tourette Syndrome.

Browse Tourette Syndrome studies →

Lead sponsor

Second Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University is the lead sponsor of 1,047 studies on the registry; 502 are open to participants now.

Compared within Tourette Syndrome, this study's primary condition as ClinicalTrials.gg classifies it; the registry's first condition term is Tic Disorders. The counts are of registry records indexed under each term, refreshed daily. How we classify →

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
6 Years to 20 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  1. meet the diagnostic criteria of chronic tic disorder or tourette syndrome;
  2. Yale Global Tic Severity Scale (YGTSS) score is greater than 20;
  3. the symptoms lasted more than 1 year, and the drug regimen was not adjusted within one month;
  4. right-handedness;
  5. age 6-20 years;
  6. able to receive continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) therapy, participants and their guardians agree to receive treatment and observation.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. age is under 6-year old;
  2. can not tolerate MRI or cTBS treatment;
  3. adjust medication during treatment.
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Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Single (Investigator)
Enrollment
95 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    traditional stimulation site continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS)

    arm: experimental: performing cTBS to tic patients for continuous 5 days ,3 times for a day (0 minute ,15 minute ,60 minute). The stimulation site include left supplementary motor area, right supplementary motor area, left primary motor area, right primary motor area , left superior parietal lobule, right superior parietal lobule. Determination of stimulation target is a common method of determination in previous studies. For example the vertex (Cz) was measured for each patient and the SMA defined at 15% of the distance between inion and nasion anterior to Cz on the sagittal midline.

    Device: traditional stimulation site continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS)

  • Experimental
    precise stimulation site cTBS

    arm: experimental: performing cTBS to tic patients for 5 days ,3 times for a day (0 minute ,15 minute ,60 minute). The stimulation site include left supplementary motor area, right supplementary motor area, left primary motor area, right primary motor area , left superior parietal lobule, right superior parietal lobule. The stimulation target is determined by the resting-state functional connectivity, which is robust functional connectivity with the GPi or Thalamus.

    Device: precise stimulation site cTBS

Interventions

  • Devicetraditional stimulation site continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS)

    before cTBS treatment, MRI was used to confirm the stimulation site

  • Deviceprecise stimulation site cTBS

    before cTBS treatment, rs-fMRI was used to confirm the stimulation site

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What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Yale Global Tic Severity Scale score

    to evaluate clinical change

    Time frame: 5 days

Secondary outcomes

  1. fMRI

    local neural activity; functional connectivity

    Time frame: 1 day, 5 days

07

Study locations

2 sites
  • center for cognition and brain disorders,HZNU
    Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310000, China
  • 2nd Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University
    Hanzhou, Zhejiang 310000, China
08

References and documents

Publications

  • Grados M, Huselid R, Duque-Serrano L. Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation in Tourette Syndrome: A Historical Perspective, Its Current Use and the Influence of Comorbidities in Treatment Response. Brain Sci. 2018 Jul 6;8(7):129. doi: 10.3390/brainsci8070129. PubMed 29986411 ↗
  • Landeros-Weisenberger A, Mantovani A, Motlagh MG, de Alvarenga PG, Katsovich L, Leckman JF, Lisanby SH. Randomized Sham Controlled Double-blind Trial of Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation for Adults With Severe Tourette Syndrome. Brain Stimul. 2015 May-Jun;8(3):574-81. doi: 10.1016/j.brs.2014.11.015. Epub 2014 Dec 3. PubMed 25912296 ↗
  • Johnson KA, Fletcher PT, Servello D, Bona A, Porta M, Ostrem JL, Bardinet E, Welter ML, Lozano AM, Baldermann JC, Kuhn J, Huys D, Foltynie T, Hariz M, Joyce EM, Zrinzo L, Kefalopoulou Z, Zhang JG, Meng FG, Zhang C, Ling Z, Xu X, Yu X, Smeets AY, Ackermans L, Visser-Vandewalle V, Mogilner AY, Pourfar MH, Almeida L, Gunduz A, Hu W, Foote KD, Okun MS, Butson CR. Image-based analysis and long-term clinical outcomes of deep brain stimulation for Tourette syndrome: a multisite study. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2019 Oct;90(10):1078-1090. doi: 10.1136/jnnp-2019-320379. Epub 2019 May 25. PubMed 31129620 ↗

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

09

Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reachedSimilar studies: half by the dot; the band is the middle halfHalf of similar studies reached it by the dot; the band is the middle half, from a quarter to three quarters

Ran from Jun 2018 to primary completion in Oct 2019, 16 months.

Of 65 non-industry interventional studies with no phase under Tourette Syndrome, half reached primary completion within 33 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 22 and three quarters within 50. This study's 16 months is below that.

Counting every sponsor, half of 65 studies reached it within 33 months; a quarter within 22 and three quarters within 50.

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
Oct 14, 2019
First posted
Oct 16, 2019
StartActual
Jun 29, 2018
Primary completionActual
Oct 31, 2019
CompletionActual
Dec 31, 2019
Last update
Aug 5, 2022
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Primary completion.
When the last participant was examined or treated to collect data for the study's main question, its primary outcome. A study that stopped early gives the date its data collection stopped.
Completion.
When the last participant's last visit took place, for every outcome, secondary ones and side effects included: the end of the study. Often later than primary completion, sometimes the same day.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Aug 5, 2022, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
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Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT04128397
Collaborators
Hangzhou Normal University
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Oct 16, 2019
Start date
Jun 29, 2018
Primary completion
Oct 31, 2019
Completion
Dec 31, 2019
Last update
Aug 5, 2022

Study contacts

Jianhua Feng
study director · 2nd Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University

Oversight

FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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This study is completed, as verified in Jun 2022. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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