An interventional study of Temporal Interference Stimulation (TIS) and Sham temporal interference stimulation (TIS) in Depressive Disorder and Temporal Interference Stimulation, sponsored by The Second Hospital of Anhui Medical University. Recruiting at 2 sites in China. Open to participants aged 12 Years to 60 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-03-10.
Sponsored by The Second Hospital of Anhui Medical University · Not applicable, Interventional, and Health services research
To investigate the effect of Temporal Interference Stimulation (TIS) on associative memory (AM) in patients with depressive disorder
Depression group: thirty patients with depressive disorder diagnosed by DSM-5 were recruited from the Second Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University. All participants underwent a structured interview and routine laboratory examination before and after receiving TIS treatment. After meeting the inclusion criteria and obtaining informed consent. Each patient received either 30-minute or sham TIS.
Before and after the treatments, the patients had received a battery measure of neuropsychological tests, and MRI scan in multimodalities. Neuropsychological assessment included HAMD, ANSAQ, HAMA, PHQ15, BSSI, PSQI, ISI, RRS, Barratt,Buss\&Perry and PVAQ. Multimodal MRI includes 3D-T1, rs-fMRI, and DTI.
Healthy controls: thirty healthy participants, who met the same exclusion criteria as the depressed patients but without a diagnosis of depression, were matched to the patients in terms of age, sex, and years of schooling.
The incidental memory task with emotional pictures were applied to evaluate the associative memory (AM) of thirty depressed patients at pre- and post-TIS compared to thirty healthy controls.
4,845 studies on the registry are indexed under Depressive Disorder; 514 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 60 is below the median of 80 across 3,999 interventional studies indexed under Depressive Disorder.
Browse Depressive Disorder studies →The Second Hospital of Anhui Medical University is the lead sponsor of 28 studies on the registry; 18 are open to participants now.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
Exclusion Criteria:
Participants will receive active TIS 10 to 14 times.
Device: Temporal Interference Stimulation (TIS)
Participants will receive sham TIS 10 to 14 times.
Device: Sham temporal interference stimulation (TIS)
The total stimulation duration was 30 minutes, including a 30-second current ramp-up at the beginning and a 30-second ramp-down at the end.
Sham stimulation had only 30 seconds of current ramping-up and ramping-down at the beginning and end of the stimulation, respectively, to simulate the sensation of actual stimulation
face-word assciative memory task score
In the face-cued word association test, participants viewed 12 grayscale photographs of faces on a computer screen, each shown for 4 seconds. Each photograph was paired with a distinct word, which participants read aloud when shown. Participants were instructed to memorize the word linked to each face. One minute later, participants viewed the same 12 faces in a new random order. They were then asked to recall the associated words. Each face was scored as correct or incorrect, and the total number of correct responses formed the AM score.
Time frame: baseline and immediately after the intervention
Change in Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD) Score
The HAMD is a clinician-administered depression assessment and consists of 17 items with a total score range from 0 to 54. A higher score indicates a worse outcome.
Time frame: baseline and immediately after the intervention
Change in the Patient Health Questionnaire-15 (PHQ-15) scale
The PHQ-15 is a 15-item scale to measure the severity of somatic symptoms, where each item is rated on a scale from 0 to 2. The PHQ-15 total score ranges from 0 to 30, with lower scores indicating less somatic symptoms.
Time frame: baseline and immediately after the intervention
MRI measures
the functional connectivity between stimulated target and the whole brain areas; the global and regional activity measures.
Time frame: baseline and immediately after the intervention
Dot-probe Task
Using the Chinese Affective Face Picture System, select 20 negative emotional faces, 20 positive emotional faces, and 40 neutral emotional faces, with an equal ratio of male and female faces. Match the positive and negative faces with neutral faces respectively. Run a standardized dot-probe paradigm using E-Prime software. First, a fixation point is displayed in the center of the screen for 1000 ms, followed by a pair of face images for 1000 ms-one emotional face and one neutral face. After the images disappear, a probe will randomly appear on either the left or right side. Press "A" for the left side and "L" for the right side. Record the participants' reaction time and accuracy in response to positive-neutral, neutral-neutral, and negative-neutral image pairs to evaluate attentional bias. Shorter reaction times and higher accuracy indicate higher scores.
Time frame: baseline and immediately after the intervention
Eligibility is decided by the study team. Share this record with your doctor or contact the team directly.
Contact study teamGet an email when the registry record changes — status, dates, results — or when someone posts here.
Sign in to followQuestions and observations about this study, from anyone following it. Not medical advice, and not a channel to the study team — their contact details are on the registry record.
Sign in to join the discussion. Reading takes no account; posting does. You choose a display name, and a pseudonym is the default.
Nothing here yet. If you are running this trial, taking part in it, or weighing whether to, this is the place to say so.
The Second Hospital of Anhui Medical University