BRU ACDC-Study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Biomedical Research Unit: Acute and Chronic effects of Transcranial Direct Current stimulation in Lewy body dementia patients: a pilot study
IRAS ID
123800
Contact name
John-Paul Taylor
Contact email
Research summary
In Lewy body dementias (LBD) complex, recurrent visual hallucinations (VH) and problems with how one perceives things visually are common and distressing symptoms. Existing drug treatments for these are often not effective and indeed the side effects from these drugs (especially antipsychotics) can be severe. Therefore there is an urgent need to develop new and effective treatments.
We have previously found that the frequency and severity of visual hallucinations in LBD is associated with the excitability of the visual cortex and we know that a posterior part of the brain, called the parietal cortex appear to be less active in LBD and this may contribute to the visual and perception difficulties and the visual hallucinations that patients experience.
Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is an established, non-invasive and well tolerated technique which is known to alter the activity or excitability levels of the brain (either increase it or decrease it) by the attachment of two soft electrode pads to the scalp which pass low intensity current between them.
In the proposed study we will recruit LBD patients with moderate to severe hallucinations to a pilot double blind randomised control trial of tDCS where they will either receive active tDCS or placebo treatment over the course of several days. They will undergo baseline assessments of their function and visual hallucination severity and will be followed up immediately after their treatment and then at one month and at three months to see if there are any sustained treatment benefits. We will also use a technique (at baseline and follow-up) called transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to test if there are visual excitability changes as a result of the tDCS.
This is a pilot study; if there are positive effects seen then we would aim to devise a larger, multicentre trial.REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Leeds West Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
13/YH/0292
Date of REC Opinion
7 Nov 2013
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion