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Chronic Pain Canada

EFFECT OF ANODAL TRANSCRANIAL DIRECT CURRENT STIMULATION (tDCS) OF PRIMARY MOTOR CORTEX ON HEADACHE FREQUENCY IN PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC MIGRAINE

Not yet recruitingPhase 3NCT07743814
View the official record on ClinicalTrials.gov

Recruiting status changes often. Contact the study team listed on ClinicalTrials.gov, and talk to your doctor before joining a study.

This study has no listed site in Canada in this snapshot. It is included as part of the worldwide chronic pain corpus.

Brief summary (from the registry)

Migraine is a common, heterogeneous neurological disorder affecting approximately 10-15% of the global population and is the third most prevalent disease worldwide. A wide range of pharmacological agents is available for migraine prophylaxis, with treatment selection generally guided by the patient's clinical profile, associated comorbidities, and individual tolerability. However, the effectiveness of preventive medications is often limited by adverse effects, leading to poor treatment adherence and discontinuation. Consequently, non-pharmacological interventions, particularly neuromodulation techniques, have gained increasing attention as potential therapeutic options for chronic migraine. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive neuromodulation technique that has demonstrated efficacy in modulating refractory pain in patients with chronic migraine, fibromyalgia, spinal cord injury, and trigeminal neuralgia. In addition, it has shown therapeutic benefits in several neurological and psychiatric disorders, including depression, stroke, epilepsy, and Parkinson's disease. The present study aims to evaluate the efficacy of anodal tDCS applied over the primary motor cortex as an adjunctive therapy for reducing headache frequency in patients with chronic migraine. A total of 32 participants with chronic migraine will be enrolled and randomized using block randomization with a block size of four, stratified according to the presence or absence of medication-overuse headache (MOH), through an online randomization generator. Participants will be allocated to receive either active or sham tDCS. Before randomization, all eligible patients will maintain a baseline headache diary for four weeks while continuing their existing prophylactic medications. Thereafter, they will undergo three 20-minute stimulation sessions administered during weeks 1, 5, and 9. Treatment outcomes will be evaluated at weeks 5, 9, and 12 using headache diary records and predefine…

Study details

Official title
EFFECT OF ANODAL TRANSCRANIAL DIRECT CURRENT STIMULATION (tDCS) OF PRIMARY MOTOR CORTEX ON HEADACHE FREQUENCY IN PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC MIGRAINE
Conditions
Interventions
Sponsor
Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital
Start date
2026-08-01
Primary completion
2027-01-31
Sex
All
Age range
from 18 Years to 60 Years
Results posted
No results posted in this snapshot
Countries
India
Total sites listed
1

Eligibility criteria

Show eligibility criteria (verbatim from the registry)
Inclusion Criteria: 1. Patients aged 18-60 years diagnosed with chronic migraine as per ICHD-3. 2. Patients who were on a minimum of one concomitant preventive medication for not less than three months duration and a dose that was stable for at least one month prior to randomization. 3. Willingness to provide informed consent and maintain a headache diary. Exclusion Criteria: 1. Patients with neurologic diseases such as tumours, seizures, dementia, meningitis, stroke, etc. 2. Patients with barbiturate/opioid overuse or complications due to NSAID overuse. 3. Patients failing to complete headache diary for more than 6 non-consecutive days during baseline. 4. Illiterate patients without a caregiver to maintain the diary. 5. Patients with pacemakers, cochlear implants. 6. Pregnant women.

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov (US National Library of Medicine), snapshot October 2026. Check the registry for current recruiting status. Record: https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT07743814