Recruiting
Early Phase 1

Light Therapy

Sponsor:

Washington University School of Medicine

Code:

NCT06720090

Conditions

OCD

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 17 - 35

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Interventions

Light therapy

Study Details

Brief summary:

The goal of this clinical trial is to test whether light therapy is effective for reducing symptoms in young adults with OCD and late bedtimes (1am or later). The main question\[s\] it aims to answer are:

Does light therapy reduce OCD symptoms? Does light therapy advance the circadian clock? If there is a comparison group: Researchers will compare a higher dose of light therapy to a lower dose to see if dose amount affects symptom reduction.

Participants will asked to:

1. Wear light therapy glasses for 1 hour each morning and complete a daily light therapy log for 5 weeks
2. Track their sleep every day with a wearable monitor and an electronic sleep diary for 5 weeks
3. Complete a 1-time assessment of sensitivity to light exposure
4. Complete self-report measures of OCD 4 times/day at baseline (2 weeks), mid-treatment (1 week), and end of treatment (1 week)

Conditions

OCD

Study ID

NCT06720090

Start date

Dec 16, 2024

Status verified date

Aug, 2026

Completion date

Mar, 2029

Anticipated

Primary completion date

Mar, 2029

Anticipated

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 17 - 35

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Inclusion Criteria:

1. Primary DSM-5 OCD diagnosis
2. Bedtime 0100 or later
3. Age 18-35
4. English speaking

Exclusion Criteria:

1. Subjects must not be currently participating in another research study that would influence their participation in our study.
2. Diagnostic status
3. Treatment status
4. Night shift work or travel more than 1 time zone outside of Central Standard Time (CST) in the past month
5. Pregnancy status
6. Medication status
7. Regular nicotine or marijuana use

Study Design

Enrollment

40 participants

Anticipated

Allocation

Randomized

Intervention Model

Parallel Assignment

Primary purpose

Treatment

Interventions and Outcome Measures

Arms

experimental: Higher dose

Participants will be given wearable light therapy devices that emit a higher light intensity.

sham comparator: Lower dose

Participants will be given wearable light therapy devices that emit a lower light intensity.

Interventions

Light therapy

5 weeks of light therapy administered via wearable light therapy glasses worn for 1 hour each morning after awakening.

Primary outcome measure

  • Yale Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (YBOCS) [ Time Frame: Administered at baseline, in treatment week 3, and post-treatment (3 administrations over 7 weeks) ]
  • Daily Perseverative Thinking Questionnaire [ Time Frame: Administered 4 times/day for 2 weeks at baseline, 4 times/day for 1 week in treatment week 3, and 4 times/day for 1 week in treatment week 5 ]

Central Contacts and Locations

Central contacts

Rebecca Cox, BA

314-935-8111scraplab@wustl.edu

Locations

Washington University

Recruiting

St Louis, Missouri, United States, 63130

Contacts

Rebecca Cox, PhD

314-935-8111cox.r@wustl.edu

Principal Investigator:

Rebecca Cox

More Information

Sponsor

Washington University School of Medicine

Last update posted

Aug 18, 2026

Last verified

Aug, 2026

Keywords

  • ocd
  • sleep
  • light therapy
  • circadian
  • behavioral treatment

Trial information was received from ClinicalTrials.gov and was last updated on 2026-09-09. This information was provided to ClinicalTrials.gov by Washington University School of Medicine on 2026-08-18.