Recruiting

TMS

Sponsor:

UCLA

Code:

NCT07397858

Conditions

Depression

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 15 - 25

Healthy Volunteers: Not accepted

Interventions

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Sham

Study Details

Brief summary:

The goal of this clinical study is to understand how a person's expectations about treatment can influence their mood, motivation, and reactions to everyday rewards. The study includes young people ages 15-25 who will complete a sham (placebo) version of an accelerated transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) treatment. No active brain stimulation is given.

The main questions this study aims to answer are:

1. Do expectancy and treatment beliefs change during and after an accelerated sham TMS schedule?
2. Do these expectations influence mood, reward processing, or craving?
3. Does a more intensive schedule of sham sessions lead to different expectancy effects than a slower, once-daily schedule?

Participants will:

  • Complete baseline clinical assessments and an MRI session
  • Undergo five days of accelerated sham TMS (no active brain stimulation is delivered)
  • Complete post-treatment MRI and follow-up assessments at 1 week and 4 weeks

Conditions

Depression

Study ID

NCT07397858

Start date

Apr 11, 2026

Status verified date

Jul, 2026

Completion date

Jan, 2028

Anticipated

Primary completion date

Aug, 2027

Anticipated

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 15 - 25

Healthy Volunteers: Not accepted

Inclusion Criteria:

  • English speaking
  • Able to provide informed consent (and assent if < 18 years)
  • 15-25 years old
  • Slight-to-severe symptoms of depression

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Past exposure to Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
  • Unable to consent (due to medical condition, psychosis, substance use, etc)
  • Acute suicidal crisis or with active medical illness that would interfere with participation
  • Contraindications to receiving MRI as determined by screening questionnaires (Contraindications for MRI include metal in the body related to an injury or surgery, for example, surgical clips, metal fragments in the eyes, or piercings that cannot be removed. Subjects with braces or permanent retainers will not be scanned, because the effects on image signal are not well understood and may affect comparability between subjects and scan sites. Participants will be excluded for major neurological problems, such as seizure disorder, traumatic brain injury with loss of consciousness, or sensory problems that may impair task performance, such as blindness.)
  • Participation in any clinical study with exposure to any investigational treatment or product within the previous 30 days, or plan on concurrent participation in other studies

Study Design

Enrollment

25 participants

Anticipated

Intervention Model

Single group

Primary purpose

Basic Science

Interventions and Outcome Measures

Arms

other: Open label sham

All study participants will receive sham TMS (no active stimulation will be provided).

Interventions

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Sham

All study participants will receive sham TMS (no active stimulation will be provided).

Primary outcome measure

  • Accelerated sham TMS feasibility [ Time Frame: From enrollment to end of study at 5 weeks ]
  • Change in treatment expectancy and beliefs [ Time Frame: From enrollment to end of study at 5 weeks ]
  • Change in reward sensitivity [ Time Frame: From enrollment to end of study at 5 weeks ]
  • Change in craving and engagement [ Time Frame: From enrollment to end of study at 5 weeks ]

Central Contacts and Locations

Locations

UC Davis Medical Center

Recruiting

Sacramento, California, United States, 95817

Contacts

Maitri Khanna

916-848-5135makhanna@health.ucdavis.edu

More Information

Sponsor

University of California, Davis

Last update posted

Jul 16, 2026

Last verified

Jul, 2026

Keywords

  • TMS
  • Sham TMS

Trial information was received from ClinicalTrials.gov and was last updated on 2026-09-10. This information was provided to ClinicalTrials.gov by University of California, Davis on 2026-07-16.