Understanding How Alzheimer's Disease Impacts the Therapeutic Response to Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation
For patients and families
In plain language
An automatic summary of structured registry data. It is an orientation aid, not a substitute for the official protocol or a physician assessment.
- What is being studied
- The protocol lists: tDCS and Cognitive Training.
- Who it may be relevant to
- Registry conditions: Alzheimer Disease. Basic parameters: 50 years — 90 years · All.
- What needs checking
- Age, condition and sex are only basic indicators. Prior treatment, laboratory values and other mandatory requirements appear in the eligibility criteria below.
- Where it takes place
- Canada
- Next step
- Save the trial, show it to the treating physician, and confirm current recruitment with the study center. Costs, documents and travel →
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Overview
There is currently little symptomatic therapy for Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and nothing effective for individuals with Frontotemporal dementia (FTD). However, neuromodulation with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has the potential to be a clinically effective therapy for both AD and FTD. The challenge now is to specify the parameters and conditions under which tDCS is most effective to transition from the laboratory to clinical medicine. tDCS studies typically report significant group effects despite the variability demonstrated among participants, with some showing clear, meaningful improvement, while others only show statistical improvement or none at all. These variable results may be related to the conventional stimulation intensity level of 2mA. The investigators predict that administering tDCS at 4.0 mA, a more significant number of participants would show a meaningful response, and those who improve at 2mA may improve even more from 4.0mA due to having a larger electric field produced. The investigators aim to test this hypothesis in people with Alzheimer's Disease.
Interventions
- Other tDCS and Cognitive Training
Participants will receive mild stimulation or no stimulation along with cognitive training
Primary outcome measures
- N-Back [Time frame: 3 months]
Eligibility criteria
Inclusion criteria
- Mild to Moderate AD
- Score between 18 and 25 on the MoCA
- Able to do the N-Back task during the initial screening
Exclusion criteria
- No history of stroke or TBI
- No shunts or metal in the body
- No history of significant heart disease, alcoholism and drug use
Criteria are shown verbatim from the registry (in English). Final eligibility is always assessed by the study center.
Healthy volunteers: No
Study design
- Allocation
- Randomized
- Model
- Crossover
- Masking
- Double blind
- Primary purpose
- Treatment
Study locations
Canada · 1 center
- Baycrest Health Sciences — Toronto
Identifiers
NCT: NCT05508841 · #22-18