Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder With rTMS
Key facts
- Who runs it
- University of California, Los Angeles
- Where
- Los Angeles, United StatesSee the 2 sites
- Trial code
- Status
- Recruiting
- People taking part
- 30 people, planned
- Started
- 1 Mar 2025
- Expected to end
- 31 Dec 2027
- Type of study
- Interventional, 2 groups
- Treatments tested
- Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)
- Record updated
- 10 August 2026
Who can take part
- Age
- 18 years to 65 years
- Sex
- Women and men
- Healthy volunteers
- Cannot take part
The registry criteria, word for word
Show all 4 criteriaShow less
Other criteria
- Age of 18-65
- DSM-5 Diagnosis of BPD based upon a psychiatric evaluation and ZAN-BPD
- Fluent English speaker
- Signed informed consent
Check if you might fit
Answer for yourself. This is not a decision: only the study team can say whether you can take part.
- Are you between 18 and 65 years old?
Where in United States
- Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLALos Angeles, United StatesContact: Elizabeth PinkertonTaking people
- Semel Institute/ UCLA TMSLos Angeles, United StatesContact: Elizabeth Pinkerton, BSTaking people
About the trial
What the trial wants to find out
This project studies the effectiveness of brain stimulation on borderline personality disorder (BPD) symptoms. This study is blinded, randomized and will enroll up to 30 participants.
Read full original descriptionShow less
Participant will be consented for the study remotely via a secure internet platform called Zoom.
Participants will undergo up to 2 MRI scans, 2 brain wave recording sessions and up to 30 brain stimulation treatments, and complete symptom assessments and cognitive behavioral tasks on a computer. Participation requires minimum of 17 in person visits over the course of 2.5 months.
Participants are randomly assigned active or sham brain stimulation. Participants who received sham brain stimulation have the option to receive additional 15 active brain stimulation session.
The 2 groups in the trial
- ActiveTreatment being tested
Subjects in this group will receive active TMS treatment at vlPFC delivered by a magnet called A/P (active/placebo) coil. The A/P coil supports double-blinding of treatment. The coil has two sides, one of which is shielded so that no energy is imparted to the brain when the shielded side is applied to the subject's head. Small skin electrodes are applied to the scalp under the coil that impart a small microcurrent to the scalp simulating the sensation of active treatment. The operator receives a code from the device instructing them which side of the coil to use for each subject, ensuring complete treatment blinding.
Treatment: Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)
- Sham- followed by Active treatmentTreatment being tested
Patients will be randomized to receive active or sham at vlPFC. Subjects assigned to the sham-controlled condition will be offered the opportunity to cross-over to open - label TMS treatment at the conclusion of the double-blind phase. This phase will serve as an incentive to recruitment because it ensures that all subjects (even those initially receiving sham stimulation) will eventually be eligible to receive active treatment. Rating scale scores will be obtained in the open-label extension just as scheduled in the controlled phase to gather additional information on efficacy of the active intervention.
Treatment: Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)
Questions to ask the study team
- How often do I need to come in, and for how long each time?
- Are travel costs paid?
- Can I keep my own doctor?
- What happens if I want to stop?
Contact the study team: see the registry record → Contacts and Locations
Print a page for my doctorData and sources
- Registry record
- Listed on ClinicalTrials.gov.
- Official title
- CLINICAL TRIAL: Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder by Targeting Ventrolateral Prefrontal-amygdala Circuit With Network-based Neuronavigated Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
- Fit questions
- Built from NCT07197502, who can take part
- Record updated
- 10 August 2026