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A Pilot Study Investigating Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) to Enhance Mindfulness Meditation

Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) logo

Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC)

Status

Completed

Conditions

Healthy

Treatments

Device: Sham tDCS Chattanooga Ionto Iontophoresis System-Phoresor
Device: tDCS via Chattanooga Ionto Iontophoresis System-Phoresor

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

NCT02790619
Pro00042149

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this study is to determine if a new technology applied while listening to a mindfulness meditation tape can affect one's ability to achieve a state of "mindfulness." The new technology is called transcranial direct current stimulation, or tDCS.

Full description

Many people initially attempt meditation but cannot get their mind to be still. Or they do not get quick results and find it frustrating. Thus, the number of people benefiting from meditation would increase if there were a method of making it easier to perform. Moreover, establishing the actual brain mechanisms involved in the benefits of meditation would potentially open up synergistic treatments and approaches.

The investigators will investigate the use of a new, non-invasive brain stimulation method called transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to augment a state of mindfulness. tDCS is a safe, inexpensive, non-invasive brain stimulation modality that has the capability of focally increasing or decreasing cortical activity. Anodal stimulation produces positive DC stimulation and is associated with increased cortical activity, whereas Cathodal stimulation produces a negative DC stimulation and is associated with decreased cortical activity. Cortical activity changes occur both during and after stimulation in a dose response fashion (higher current density and longer duration of stimulation produces larger and longer lasting effects).

The investigators will be investigating the use of tDCS to augment mindfulness meditation in a double-blind, crossover, randomized, sham-controlled trial.

Enrollment

15 patients

Sex

All

Ages

18 to 45 years old

Volunteers

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

  • Healthy control volunteers.
  • meditation naive

Exclusion criteria

  • Pregnancy,
  • History of Mental illness or neurological disorders,
  • prior meditative experiences

Trial design

Primary purpose

Treatment

Allocation

Randomized

Interventional model

Crossover Assignment

Masking

Quadruple Blind

15 participants in 3 patient groups

Meditation and Active Stimulation 1
Active Comparator group
Description:
Electrodes will then be placed on the participant and participant will then listen to a meditative recording instructing to focus on participant's breath that will last approximately 5 minutes.Participant will then receive 20 minutes of tDCS with Anode over F8 and cathode over left supraorbital area with 1 milliamp(mA) stimulation with intervention administration delivered by tDCS via Chattanooga Ionto Iontophoresis System-Phoresor.
Treatment:
Device: tDCS via Chattanooga Ionto Iontophoresis System-Phoresor
Meditation and Active Stimulation 2
Active Comparator group
Description:
Electrodes will then be placed on the participant and participant will then listen to a meditative recording instructing to focus on participant's breath that will last approximately 5 minutes.Participant will then receive 20 minutes of tDCS with Anode over F8 and cathode over left supraorbital area with 2 mA stimulation with intervention administration delivered by tDCS via Chattanooga Ionto Iontophoresis System-Phoresor.
Treatment:
Device: tDCS via Chattanooga Ionto Iontophoresis System-Phoresor
Meditation and Sham Stimulation
Sham Comparator group
Description:
Electrodes will then be placed on the participant and participant will then listen to a meditative recording instructing to focus on participant's breath that will last approximately 5 minutes.The participants in the sham study will receive Sham tDCS (no stimulation) with Anode over F8 and cathode over left supraorbital area with intervention administration delivered by Sham tDCS Chattanooga Ionto Iontophoresis System-Phoresor
Treatment:
Device: Sham tDCS Chattanooga Ionto Iontophoresis System-Phoresor

Trial contacts and locations

0

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Data sourced from clinicaltrials.gov

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