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Active, not recruitingNCT05008198Updated Oct 22, 2025

Assessing an EEG Biomarker of Response to TMS for Major Depression

An observational study in Depression, sponsored by VA Office of Research and Development. Active, not recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2025-10-22.

Sponsored by VA Office of Research and Development · Observational

Study type
Observational
Model
Case-only
Time perspective
Prospective
Enrollment
266
Ages
18 Years and older
Sex
All
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Study summary

Veterans with treatment resistant depression (TRD) have the opportunity to receive transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) treatment via the VA's National TMS Clinical Pilot Program. While some see improvement with their depression, others do not. Therefore, it may be beneficial to be able to predict with biomarkers what participants may see improvement with their treatment. Electroencephalography (EEG) is a means to identify such biomarkers. Four hundred Veterans with TRD will be enrolled in this trial to determine whether neuroimaging biomarkers of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) can be prospectively replicated in a large ecologically valid sample. Participants will have a total of EEG scans at baseline, every 5th treatment session, and at the end of treatment for a total of 7 EEG scans.

Read the detailed description

The goals of this study are to: (1) test a potential predictive resting EEG biomarker of antidepressant response (differential patters of gamma oscillations) in a large sample of Veterans with TRD receiving TMS (N=400); (2) assess whether a second putative biomarker (early changes in theta cordance during treatment) predict eventual response to TMS, as well as, leverage this large sample to identify other potential biomarkers (such as markers of early versus late response to TMS, markers of response to other TMS parameters (e.g., 5 Hz, 1 Hz or theta burst TMS), and markers of change with treatment that may speak to mechanism); and (3) create an infrastructure to rapidly identify and test additional EEG-based biomarkers of treatment response in patients with depression and other psychiatric conditions.

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Conditions studied

  • Depression

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Keywords

  • depression
  • transcranial magnetic stimulation
  • electroencephalography
  • biomarkers
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In context

Depression

8,057 studies on the registry are indexed under Depression; 1,641 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 266 is above the median of 160 across 1,084 observational studies indexed under Depression.

Browse Depression studies →

Lead sponsor

VA Office of Research and Development is the lead sponsor of 1,733 studies on the registry; 396 are open to participants now.

Of its 206 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 180 (87%) have results posted.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

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Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years and older
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No
Sampling method
Non-probability sample

Study population

Veterans with major depressive disorder (MDD) participating in the VA Clinical TMS Pilot Program. Given the complex nature of the Veteran population, the primary diagnosis of MDD may be comorbid with other disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Inclusion criteria

  • Veterans participating in the VA TMS Pilot Program age 18 years or older
  • Able to provide written informed consent to participate in the EEG portion of this study and to allow linking such data to data collected as part of the TMS Pilot Program
  • Diagnosis of MDD based on DSM-5 criteria and be currently depressed despite prior treatment with at least one adequate antidepressant treatment
  • Receiving stable doses of psychiatric medications (no dose changes for >4 weeks prior to study entry), in stable psychotherapy, or receiving no psychiatric medications and/or psychotherapy

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • History of seizure disorder
  • Known structural or neurologic abnormalities present or close to the treatment site that would increase risk of seizure
  • History of brain surgery
  • History of recent traumatic brain injury (within 6 months) or any history of moderate to severe traumatic brain injury
  • Clinical evidence of severe or uncontrolled alcohol or substance use disorders within three months
  • Active withdrawal from alcohol or other substances of abuse
  • Implanted metal device in the head that would increase the risk of TMS
  • Metal in the head that would increase the risk of TMS
  • Current psychosis
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Study design

Observational model
Case-only
Time perspective
Prospective
Enrollment
266 participants (actual)
Patient registry
No

Groups and cohorts

  • Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

    Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation is delivered as part of routine care and is not managed by this observational study.

    Other: Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

Interventions

  • OtherTranscranial Magnetic Stimulation

    Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation is delivered as part of routine care and is not managed by this observational study.

    Also known as: TMS; Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

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What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Change in Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology-Self Report (IDS-SR)

    The IDS-SR is a 30-item self-report depressive symptom severity rating scale. The IDS-SR has been shown to have highly acceptable psychometric properties and has been found to be a treatment sensitive measures of symptom severity in depression. Each question is on a scale of 0 to 4. The IDS-SR has a score range between 0 to 84, with a higher score reflecting higher symptom severity in depression.

    Time frame: 1) Baseline, pre-treatment and 2) 6 weeks, treatment completion

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Study locations

1 site
  • White River Junction VA Medical Center, White River Junction, VT
    White River Junction, Vermont 05001-3833, United States
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References and documents

Study documents

  • Informed consent form · Apr 25, 2025

Documents are hosted by the registry — open the source record to download them.

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

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Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Oct 22, 2025, 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
NCT05008198
Lead sponsor
VA Office of Research and Development
Collaborators
VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Providence VA Medical Center, James A. Haley Veterans Administration Hospital, White River Junction Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Emory University, University of California, Los Angeles, Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital, VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System, San Diego Veterans Healthcare System, Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Aug 17, 2021
Start date
Aug 19, 2021
Primary completion
Sep 30, 2025
Completion
Sep 30, 2026 (estimated)
Last update
Oct 22, 2025

Study contacts

Paul Holtzheimer, MD
principal investigator · White River Junction VA Medical Center, White River Junction, VT

Oversight

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

Not currently enrolling

This study is active, not recruiting, as verified in Oct 2025. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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Discussion

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