Recruiting
Take part in
a study.
We are looking for adults living with depression, anxiety, OCD, or schizophrenia to help us work out which brain circuits particular symptoms come from — and whether aiming stimulation at those circuits does more than aiming by anatomy alone.
What the study is about
Psychiatric diagnoses group people by their symptoms, not by what is happening in their brains. Two people who both meet criteria for depression can have very different circuits driving it, which is one reason the same treatment helps one of them and not the other.
This study looks for stimulation targets that track symptoms rather than diagnoses. That is why it enrols people across four different conditions: we are interested in what someone's anxiety, low mood, intrusive thoughts, or psychotic symptoms have in common at the level of circuitry, and where those circuits reach cortex that a TMS coil can reach.
Taking part means having your brain imaged and receiving a course of transcranial magnetic stimulation, with symptom measures along the way.
Who can take part
The full eligibility criteria are on the study's registry record, and the study team will go through them with you before anything is scheduled. In broad terms we are looking for:
- Adults aged 18 and over.
- A current diagnosis of depression, an anxiety disorder, OCD, or schizophrenia.
- Willingness to have an MRI scan — which rules out some metal implants, and which the team screens for carefully.
- No condition that makes TMS unsafe, such as a seizure disorder. The team will check this with you.
If you are not sure whether you would be eligible, it is worth asking rather than ruling yourself out. Screening is a conversation, not a form.
What taking part involves
Screening
A conversation with the study team about your history, your current symptoms, and the safety questions above. Nothing is booked until both you and the team are satisfied it makes sense.
Imaging
An MRI scan, including a resting-state scan used to work out where the circuits relevant to your symptoms reach the surface of your brain. You lie still; nothing is injected and nothing hurts.
Stimulation
A course of TMS. A coil is held against your scalp and delivers magnetic pulses; people generally describe it as a tapping sensation, and you are awake and can talk throughout. The most common side effects are scalp discomfort and headache, which usually settle.
Follow-up
Symptom questionnaires and interviews at intervals through the study, so we can see what changed and when.
What you should expect from us
- Taking part is voluntary. You can stop at any point, for any reason, and it will not affect the care you get anywhere else.
- This is research, not a treatment programme. We cannot promise that taking part will improve your symptoms — finding out is the point of the study.
- Your care outside the study continues as normal. Do not stop a treatment or a medication because of this study without talking to the clinician who prescribed it.
- The study is reviewed and overseen by an institutional review board, and you will be given the full consent document to read in your own time before deciding.
Getting in touch
The quickest route is to email the study team. It helps if you say which of the four conditions applies to you and roughly where you are based, but you do not need to prepare anything else.
This page is a plain-language summary and is not a substitute for the consent document or for medical advice. The registry record at ClinicalTrials.gov is the authoritative source for the study's current recruitment status, criteria, and design; where this page and the registry disagree, the registry is correct. Earlier trial information from the group's time at Brigham and Women's Hospital is kept in the lab archive.