Tic DisorderNCT07839377
Teen and Adult Tic TMS Study
A study testing cTBS (accelerated continuous theta burst stimulation) in people with Tic Disorder, run by University of California, San Francisco at 1 site in United States.
Trial summary
This project investigates safety, tolerability, and efficacy signals of accelerated continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS), a form of inhibitory repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), for patients with Tourette Syndrome and chronic tic disorders (CTD). Read more about this study
- Who is it for?
- Ages 15 to 35 years
- Conditions the study is for
- Tic Disorder
- What is being tested?
- cTBS (accelerated continuous theta burst stimulation)
- Type of treatment
- Medical device
- Could I receive a placebo?
- No, everyone receives an active treatment
- How many people
- 40 participants
- Where
- 1 siteUnited States
- Study dates
- 1 Jun 2026to Oct 2028
- Phase
- Interventional
- Are there results?
- Not yet: the study is under way
Key requirements
Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.
- Ages 15 to 35 years
- All sexes
- No healthy volunteers
- Child, Adult
Who may be able to join
- Outpatients
- Ages 15 - 35 years old
- Meets DSM-5 criteria for persistent (chronic) vocal/motor tic disorder or Tourette's syndrome with screening YGTSS score ≥ 20 (moderate or greater severity).
- Moderate severity or intolerable side effects with at least one prior trial of an evidence-based anti-tic medication.
- Stable on chronic psychotropic medications and/or therapy for 6 weeks prior to the study and agreeable to continue current treatments without change throughout the study.
- Participants may continue to take medications and record daily usage throughout the study.
Show all 9Show fewer
- Capacity to provide informed assent or consent and parent or legal guardian able to provide consent for minors.
- Ability to tolerate clinical study procedures.
- Successfully complete the screening forms without any contraindications.
Who cannot join
- Psychiatric: history of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, substance /alcohol abuse disorder, current elevated suicide risk, prior psychosurgery.
- Neurologic: severe neurocognitive disorder, seizure disorder, certain structural brain lesions (e.g., intracranial mass lesions, TBI, hydrocephalus, sequelae of meningitis, frank brain injury).
- TMS contraindications: implanted device; presence of metal in the head, including eyes and ears (excluding dental implants); certain tics.
- Subjects with an unstable physical, systemic, or metabolic disorder (e.g., unstable hypertension; malnutrition).
- Females who are pregnant or nursing (as determined by a questionnaire and urine pregnancy test).
- Inability to complete the research protocol as determined by the Principal Investigator.
Trial locations and contacts
1 site in 1 country. Contact the study team or a site near you to ask about taking part.
United States1 site, 1 recruiting
- Recruiting
University of California, San Francisco
San Francisco, California, 94107
About this study
Official title: Treating Adolescent and Adult Tic Disorders With Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
This project investigates safety, tolerability, and efficacy signals of accelerated continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS), a form of inhibitory repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), for patients with Tourette Syndrome and chronic tic disorders (CTD). It integrates resting-state functional MRI (fMRI) to assess changes in brain circuits and neurophysiology. CTD are neurodevelopmental disorders marked by motor and/or vocal tics, associated with dysfunction in cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical (CSTC) networks, particularly the supplementary motor area (SMA), primary motor cortex (M1), and connected regions. While low-frequency rTMS has shown preliminary benefits in pediatric populations, circuit-targeted approaches remain relatively unexplored in children, adolescents and adults, leaving no consensus about optimal applications.
Participants will be randomized to receive 50 sessions of 1800 pulses of cTBS rTMS over two weeks, with five sessions/day targeting the SMA or M1. Assessments will include the Yale Global Tic Severity Scale (YGTSS) and MRI.
Read more
Aim 1 Determine if cTBS to the M1 can reduce CTD symptoms and normalize abnormal network connectivity within the Somato-Cognitive Action Network (SCAN).
Aim 2 Determine if cTBS to the SMA can reduce symptoms of CTD and normalize abnormal network connectivity within the Action Mode Network (AMN).
Read the detailed description
For Aims 1 and 2, the investigators propose to test a protocol of accelerated inhibitory continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) targeting areas of tic-related hyperactivity as identified by functional MRI. Participants will be randomized by computerized list to either receive rTMS directed at the SMA or rTMS directed toward the M1. The investigators will examine data on tolerability, adverse events and early efficacy signals that could inform future, larger scale controlled trials for this indication in adolescents and young adults.
TMS: Our protocol consists of five treatments of inhibitory continuous TBS (cTBS) with the target intensity less than 100% to the SMA or M1 Thumb (as determined by random assignment) lasting five minutes delivered over the course of 10 days (2 weeks) for a total of 50 treatments.
For Aim 3, the investigators will utilize repeated brain MRI imaging pre- and post-TMS treatment within persons with CTD to gauge direction of effects. The investigators plan to observe functional network activity in presumed tic-related neural circuits in youth with CTD pre- and post-treatment. A within-person design also highlights a personalized approach to circuit-based therapeutics that can be explored for individual differences in neural and clinical responses.
MR Imaging Protocol: MRI scanning including T1-weighted anatomical and rs-fMRI will take place on a GE Discovery MR750 3 Tesla scanner. For the rs-fMRI scan, patients will be asked to undergo at least 2x 7 minute scans with eyes open and were observed by an MR technician to ensure wakefulness. All T1 and fMRI scans will be preprocessed using the fMRIprep, a standardized preprocessing pipeline which utilizes tools from the widely-used MRI processing software packages AFNI, ANTs, FreeSurfer, and FSL. T1 scans will be corrected for intensity nonuniformity, skull-stripped, and segmented for registration purposes, then resampled into MNI space. fMRI scans will be slice-time corrected and resampled back to their native space with headmotion correction, then registered and resampled to both T1 space and MNI space. Data analysis will be performed in AFNI, including denoising of fMRI data using nuisance regressors generated by fMRIprep including 12 motion parameters as well as CSF and white matter signals. The resulting residual signal will then be utilized to generate RSFC matrices from the Fisher transformed correlation to generate normalized Z statistics.
- Conditions
- Tic Disorder
- Being tested
- cTBS (accelerated continuous theta burst stimulation)
- Keywords
- Tic, Tics, Tourette's, Tourette, Tourettes, Tic Disorder
- Medical subject headings
- Tic Disorders, Tics
What participants receive
What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.
cTBS (accelerated continuous theta burst stimulation)Device
Participants will be randomized to receive 50 sessions of 1800 pulses of cTBS rTMS over two weeks, with five sessions/day targeting the SMA or M1.
| Study group | Role | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| M1 (primary motor cortex) | Experimental | Determine if cTBS to the M1 can reduce CTD symptoms and normalize abnormal network connectivity within the Somato-Cognitive Action Network (SCAN). Receives: Device: cTBS (accelerated continuous theta burst stimulation) |
| SMA (supplementary motor area) | Experimental | Determine if cTBS to the SMA can reduce symptoms of CTD and normalize abnormal network connectivity within the Action Mode Network (AMN). Receives: Device: cTBS (accelerated continuous theta burst stimulation) |
What is being measured
The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.
To assess the safety and tolerability of repeated theta burst TMS administration in adolescents age 15 - 35 years with CTD.
This study's primary aim is to determine the safety and tolerability of repeated TMS administration in adolescents and adults ages 15 - 35 years with DSM-5 confirmed CTD of moderate or greater severity. These will be determined by protocol completion rate from enrollment to final visit, and tabulation of the individual and summed frequencies of reported and identified adverse events observed from study enrollment to final visit.
Measured: All protocol visits (treatment days 1 - 10)
Secondary outcomes (1)
To examine the possible efficacy of repeated TMS administration on CTD symptom severity at two different brain regions (M1 and SMA).
The secondary objective of the project is to examine if repeated TMS administration at two different brain regions (M1 and SMA) is associated with clinically significant decreases in CTD symptom severity, as measured by repeated administration of the Yale Global Tic Severity Scale (YGTSS) by a trained clinical rater.
Measured: Screening, baseline, treatment day 5, treatment day 10, 1-week follow-up, 1-month follow-up
Timeline
From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.
- First posted24 Sep 2026
- Study start1 Jun 2026
- Primary completionJun 2028 (estimated)
- Study completionOct 2028 (estimated)
Resources
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govThe registry entry this page is built from, with its full change history.
- Publications (32)Papers the sponsor has linked to this study.
- Other trials for Tic DisorderStudies of the same condition, open and under way.
- More trials run by University of California, San FranciscoThe sponsor's other registered studies.
- What the trial phases meanHow a treatment moves from first tests in people to approval.
More details
For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.
Study design
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Phase N/A
- Primary purpose
- Treatment
- Allocation
- Randomised
- Intervention model
- Parallel groups
- Masking
- None (open label)
- Enrolment
- 40 participants (estimated)
Sponsor and investigators
- Lead sponsor
- University of California, San Francisco
- Sponsor type
- University, hospital or other
- Responsible party
- Sponsor
- Investigators
- Andrew M Lee, Principal investigator, University of California, San Francisco
IDs, dates and publications
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT07839377
- Sponsor's protocol ID
- 25-43729
- Status last verified
- Sep 2026
- First submitted
- 14 Sep 2026
- Last updated
- 24 Sep 2026
- Results posted
- No
- Data monitoring committee
- No
- FDA-regulated drug
- No
- FDA-regulated device
- Yes
- Individual data sharing
- No
Publications
Claudio-Campos K, Stevens D, Koo SW, Valko A, Bienvenu OJ, Budman CB, Cath DC, Darrow S, Geller D, Goes FS, Grados MA, Greenberg BD, Greenberg E, Hirschtritt ME, Illmann C, Ivankovic F, King RA, Knowles JA, Krasnow J, Lee PC, Lyon GJ, McCracken JT, Robertson MM, Osiecki L, Riddle MA, Rouleau G, Sandor P, Nestadt G, Samuels J, Scharf JM, Mathews CA; Tourette Association of America International Consortium for Genetics (TAAICG) and the OCD Collaborative Genetics Association Study (OCGAS). Is Persistent Motor or Vocal Tic Disorder a Milder Form of Tourette Syndrome? Mov Disord. 2021 Aug;36(8):1899-1910. doi: 10.1002/mds.28593. Epub 2021 May 4.
PubMed 33942911Roessner V, Eichele H, Stern JS, Skov L, Rizzo R, Debes NM, Nagy P, Cavanna AE, Termine C, Ganos C, Munchau A, Szejko N, Cath D, Muller-Vahl KR, Verdellen C, Hartmann A, Rothenberger A, Hoekstra PJ, Plessen KJ. European clinical guidelines for Tourette syndrome and other tic disorders-version 2.0. Part III: pharmacological treatment. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2022 Mar;31(3):425-441. doi: 10.1007/s00787-021-01899-z. Epub 2021 Nov 10.
PubMed 34757514Reese HE, Scahill L, Peterson AL, Crowe K, Woods DW, Piacentini J, Walkup JT, Wilhelm S. The premonitory urge to tic: measurement, characteristics, and correlates in older adolescents and adults. Behav Ther. 2014 Mar;45(2):177-86. doi: 10.1016/j.beth.2013.09.002. Epub 2013 Sep 21.
PubMed 24491193McGuire JF, Piacentini J, Storch EA, Murphy TK, Ricketts EJ, Woods DW, Walkup JW, Peterson AL, Wilhelm S, Lewin AB, McCracken JT, Leckman JF, Scahill L. A multicenter examination and strategic revisions of the Yale Global Tic Severity Scale. Neurology. 2018 May 8;90(19):e1711-e1719. doi: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000005474. Epub 2018 Apr 13.
PubMed 29653992McGuire JF, Karkanias GB, Bittman RM, Atkinson SD, Munschauer FE, Wanaski SP, Cunniff TM, Gilbert DL. Determining Clinically Meaningful Improvement in Children and Adolescents with Tourette Syndrome Receiving Pharmacotherapy. J Child Adolesc Psychopharmacol. 2025 Oct;35(8):447-453. doi: 10.1089/cap.2025.0036. Epub 2025 May 28.
PubMed 40272969Sallee F, Kohegyi E, Zhao J, McQuade R, Cox K, Sanchez R, van Beek A, Nyilas M, Carson W, Kurlan R. Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial Demonstrates the Efficacy and Safety of Oral Aripiprazole for the Treatment of Tourette's Disorder in Children and Adolescents. J Child Adolesc Psychopharmacol. 2017 Nov;27(9):771-781. doi: 10.1089/cap.2016.0026. Epub 2017 Jul 7.
PubMed 28686474Steuber ER, McGuire JF. A meta-analysis of transcranial magnetic stimulation in Tourette syndrome. J Psychiatr Res. 2024 May;173:34-40. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2024.02.057. Epub 2024 Mar 8.
PubMed 38479346Wu SW, Maloney T, Gilbert DL, Dixon SG, Horn PS, Huddleston DA, Eaton K, Vannest J. Functional MRI-navigated repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation over supplementary motor area in chronic tic disorders. Brain Stimul. 2014 Mar-Apr;7(2):212-8. doi: 10.1016/j.brs.2013.10.005. Epub 2013 Oct 29.
PubMed 24268723Fu M, Wei H, Meng X, Chen H, Shang B, Chen F, Huang Z, Sun Y, Wang Y. Effects of Low-Frequency Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation of the Bilateral Parietal Cortex in Patients With Tourette Syndrome. Front Neurol. 2021 Feb 12;12:602830. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2021.602830. eCollection 2021.
PubMed 33643191Wall CA, Croarkin PE, McClintock SM, Murphy LL, Bandel LA, Sim LA, Sampson SM. Neurocognitive effects of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation in adolescents with major depressive disorder. Front Psychiatry. 2013 Dec 12;4:165. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2013.00165. eCollection 2013.
PubMed 24376426Seewoo BJ, Hennessy LA, Jaeschke LA, Mackie LA, Etherington SJ, Dunlop SA, Croarkin PE, Rodger J. A Preclinical Study of Standard Versus Accelerated Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation for Depression in Adolescents. J Child Adolesc Psychopharmacol. 2022 Apr;32(3):187-193. doi: 10.1089/cap.2021.0100. Epub 2021 Dec 31.
PubMed 34978846Croarkin PE, Elmaadawi AZ, Aaronson ST, Schrodt GR Jr, Holbert RC, Verdoliva S, Heart KL, Demitrack MA, Strawn JR. Left prefrontal transcranial magnetic stimulation for treatment-resistant depression in adolescents: a double-blind, randomized, sham-controlled trial. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2021 Jan;46(2):462-469. doi: 10.1038/s41386-020-00829-y. Epub 2020 Sep 12.
PubMed 32919400Gu LM, Deng CJ, Shang DW, Huang SQ, Nie S, Yang XH, Ning YP, Huang XB, Balbuena L, Xiang YT, Zheng W. Efficacy and safety of low-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation in adolescents with first-episode major depressive disorder: A randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled pilot trial. J Affect Disord. 2025 Feb 1;370:190-197. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2024.11.001. Epub 2024 Nov 2.
PubMed 39491681Zewdie E, Ciechanski P, Kuo HC, Giuffre A, Kahl C, King R, Cole L, Godfrey H, Seeger T, Swansburg R, Damji O, Rajapakse T, Hodge J, Nelson S, Selby B, Gan L, Jadavji Z, Larson JR, MacMaster F, Yang JF, Barlow K, Gorassini M, Brunton K, Kirton A. Safety and tolerability of transcranial magnetic and direct current stimulation in children: Prospective single center evidence from 3.5 million stimulations. Brain Stimul. 2020 May-Jun;13(3):565-575. doi: 10.1016/j.brs.2019.12.025. Epub 2019 Dec 30.
PubMed 32289678Allen CH, Kluger BM, Buard I. Safety of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation in Children: A Systematic Review of the Literature. Pediatr Neurol. 2017 Mar;68:3-17. doi: 10.1016/j.pediatrneurol.2016.12.009. Epub 2017 Jan 4.
PubMed 28216033
Study at a glance
From the registry record, last updated by the sponsor on 24 Sep 2026. Recruitment status is as the sponsor reported it: confirm with the study team.
- Official title
- Treating Adolescent and Adult Tic Disorders With Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT07839377
- Acronym / sponsor ID
- 25-43729
- Conditions
- Tic Disorder
- Keywords
- Tic, Tics, Tourette's, Tourette, Tourettes, Tic Disorder
- Study type
- Interventional
- Recruitment status
- Recruiting
- Enrolment
- 40 participants (estimated)
- Lead sponsor
- University of California, San FranciscoUniversity, hospital or other
- Study start
- 1 Jun 2026 (actual)
- Primary completion
- Jun 2028 (estimated)
- Study completion
- Oct 2028 (estimated)
- First posted
- 24 Sep 2026 (actual)
- Results
- Not posted in the source record
Clinical summary
The research question as the sponsor registered it. This describes what the study plans to test, not what it found.
This project investigates safety, tolerability, and efficacy signals of accelerated continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS), a form of inhibitory repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), for patients with Tourette Syndrome and chronic tic disorders (CTD). It integrates resting-state functional MRI (fMRI) to assess changes in brain circuits and neurophysiology. CTD are neurodevelopmental disorders marked by motor and/or vocal tics, associated with dysfunction in cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical (CSTC) networks, particularly the supplementary motor area (SMA), primary motor cortex (M1), and connected regions. While low-frequency rTMS has shown preliminary benefits in pediatric populations, circuit-targeted approaches remain relatively unexplored in children, adolescents and adults, leaving no consensus about optimal applications.
Participants will be randomized to receive 50 sessions of 1800 pulses of cTBS rTMS over two weeks, with five sessions/day targeting the SMA or M1. Assessments will include the Yale Global Tic Severity Scale (YGTSS) and MRI.
Aim 1 Determine if cTBS to the M1 can reduce CTD symptoms and normalize abnormal network connectivity within the Somato-Cognitive Action Network (SCAN).
Aim 2 Determine if cTBS to the SMA can reduce symptoms of CTD and normalize abnormal network connectivity within the Action Mode Network (AMN).
Detailed description
For Aims 1 and 2, the investigators propose to test a protocol of accelerated inhibitory continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) targeting areas of tic-related hyperactivity as identified by functional MRI. Participants will be randomized by computerized list to either receive rTMS directed at the SMA or rTMS directed toward the M1. The investigators will examine data on tolerability, adverse events and early efficacy signals that could inform future, larger scale controlled trials for this indication in adolescents and young adults.
TMS: Our protocol consists of five treatments of inhibitory continuous TBS (cTBS) with the target intensity less than 100% to the SMA or M1 Thumb (as determined by random assignment) lasting five minutes delivered over the course of 10 days (2 weeks) for a total of 50 treatments.
For Aim 3, the investigators will utilize repeated brain MRI imaging pre- and post-TMS treatment within persons with CTD to gauge direction of effects. The investigators plan to observe functional network activity in presumed tic-related neural circuits in youth with CTD pre- and post-treatment. A within-person design also highlights a personalized approach to circuit-based therapeutics that can be explored for individual differences in neural and clinical responses.
MR Imaging Protocol: MRI scanning including T1-weighted anatomical and rs-fMRI will take place on a GE Discovery MR750 3 Tesla scanner. For the rs-fMRI scan, patients will be asked to undergo at least 2x 7 minute scans with eyes open and were observed by an MR technician to ensure wakefulness. All T1 and fMRI scans will be preprocessed using the fMRIprep, a standardized preprocessing pipeline which utilizes tools from the widely-used MRI processing software packages AFNI, ANTs, FreeSurfer, and FSL. T1 scans will be corrected for intensity nonuniformity, skull-stripped, and segmented for registration purposes, then resampled into MNI space. fMRI scans will be slice-time corrected and resampled back to their native space with headmotion correction, then registered and resampled to both T1 space and MNI space. Data analysis will be performed in AFNI, including denoising of fMRI data using nuisance regressors generated by fMRIprep including 12 motion parameters as well as CSF and white matter signals. The resulting residual signal will then be utilized to generate RSFC matrices from the Fisher transformed correlation to generate normalized Z statistics.
Study design
- Primary purpose
- Treatment
- Allocation
- Randomised
- Intervention model
- Parallel groups
- Masking
- None (open label)
- Number of arms
- 2
| Arm | Type | Receives |
|---|---|---|
| M1 (primary motor cortex) | Experimental | Device: cTBS (accelerated continuous theta burst stimulation)Determine if cTBS to the M1 can reduce CTD symptoms and normalize abnormal network connectivity within the Somato-Cognitive Action Network (SCAN). |
| SMA (supplementary motor area) | Experimental | Device: cTBS (accelerated continuous theta burst stimulation)Determine if cTBS to the SMA can reduce symptoms of CTD and normalize abnormal network connectivity within the Action Mode Network (AMN). |
Who may qualify
- Ages
- 15 to 35 years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Not accepted
- Age groups
- Child, Adult
Key inclusion criteria (9 listed)
- Outpatients
- Ages 15 - 35 years old
- Meets DSM-5 criteria for persistent (chronic) vocal/motor tic disorder or Tourette's syndrome with screening YGTSS score ≥ 20 (moderate or greater severity).
- Moderate severity or intolerable side effects with at least one prior trial of an evidence-based anti-tic medication.
- Stable on chronic psychotropic medications and/or therapy for 6 weeks prior to the study and agreeable to continue current treatments without change throughout the study.
Key exclusion criteria (6 listed)
- Psychiatric: history of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, substance /alcohol abuse disorder, current elevated suicide risk, prior psychosurgery.
- Neurologic: severe neurocognitive disorder, seizure disorder, certain structural brain lesions (e.g., intracranial mass lesions, TBI, hydrocephalus, sequelae of meningitis, frank brain injury).
- TMS contraindications: implanted device; presence of metal in the head, including eyes and ears (excluding dental implants); certain tics.
- Subjects with an unstable physical, systemic, or metabolic disorder (e.g., unstable hypertension; malnutrition).
- Females who are pregnant or nursing (as determined by a questionnaire and urine pregnancy test).
Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening; this overview does not establish that a patient qualifies. Full inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Interventions
| Intervention | Type | Arms |
|---|---|---|
| cTBS (accelerated continuous theta burst stimulation)Participants will be randomized to receive 50 sessions of 1800 pulses of cTBS rTMS over two weeks, with five sessions/day targeting the SMA or M1. | Device | M1 (primary motor cortex), SMA (supplementary motor area) |
Primary outcome
To assess the safety and tolerability of repeated theta burst TMS administration in adolescents age 15 - 35 years with CTD.
Time frame: All protocol visits (treatment days 1 - 10)
This study's primary aim is to determine the safety and tolerability of repeated TMS administration in adolescents and adults ages 15 - 35 years with DSM-5 confirmed CTD of moderate or greater severity. These will be determined by protocol completion rate from enrollment to final visit, and tabulation of the individual and summed frequencies of reported and identified adverse events observed from study enrollment to final visit.
1 secondary outcome
To examine the possible efficacy of repeated TMS administration on CTD symptom severity at two different brain regions (M1 and SMA).
Time frame: Screening, baseline, treatment day 5, treatment day 10, 1-week follow-up, 1-month follow-up
Results and safety
This study is still under way. Results are not available in the source record yet.
Research links
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govLast updated by the sponsor 24 Sep 2026.
- Background: PubMed 33942911Claudio-Campos K, Stevens D, Koo SW, Valko A, Bienvenu OJ, Budman CB, Cath DC, Darrow S, Geller D, Goes FS, Grados MA, Greenberg BD, Greenberg E, Hirschtritt ME, Illmann C, Ivankovic F, King RA, Knowles JA, Krasnow J, Lee PC, Lyon GJ, McCracken JT, Robertson MM, Osiecki L, Riddle MA, Rouleau G, Sandor P, Nestadt G, Samuels J, Scharf JM, Mathews CA; Tourette Association of America International Consortium for Genetics (TAAICG) and the OCD Collaborative Genetics Association Study (OCGAS). Is Persistent Motor or Vocal Tic Disorder a Milder Form of Tourette Syndrome? Mov Disord. 2021 Aug;36(8):1899-1910. doi: 10.1002/mds.28593. Epub 2021 May 4.
- Background: PubMed 34757514Roessner V, Eichele H, Stern JS, Skov L, Rizzo R, Debes NM, Nagy P, Cavanna AE, Termine C, Ganos C, Munchau A, Szejko N, Cath D, Muller-Vahl KR, Verdellen C, Hartmann A, Rothenberger A, Hoekstra PJ, Plessen KJ. European clinical guidelines for Tourette syndrome and other tic disorders-version 2.0. Part III: pharmacological treatment. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2022 Mar;31(3):425-441. doi: 10.1007/s00787-021-01899-z. Epub 2021 Nov 10.
- Background: PubMed 24491193Reese HE, Scahill L, Peterson AL, Crowe K, Woods DW, Piacentini J, Walkup JT, Wilhelm S. The premonitory urge to tic: measurement, characteristics, and correlates in older adolescents and adults. Behav Ther. 2014 Mar;45(2):177-86. doi: 10.1016/j.beth.2013.09.002. Epub 2013 Sep 21.
- Background: PubMed 29653992McGuire JF, Piacentini J, Storch EA, Murphy TK, Ricketts EJ, Woods DW, Walkup JW, Peterson AL, Wilhelm S, Lewin AB, McCracken JT, Leckman JF, Scahill L. A multicenter examination and strategic revisions of the Yale Global Tic Severity Scale. Neurology. 2018 May 8;90(19):e1711-e1719. doi: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000005474. Epub 2018 Apr 13.
- Background: PubMed 40272969McGuire JF, Karkanias GB, Bittman RM, Atkinson SD, Munschauer FE, Wanaski SP, Cunniff TM, Gilbert DL. Determining Clinically Meaningful Improvement in Children and Adolescents with Tourette Syndrome Receiving Pharmacotherapy. J Child Adolesc Psychopharmacol. 2025 Oct;35(8):447-453. doi: 10.1089/cap.2025.0036. Epub 2025 May 28.
- Background: PubMed 28686474Sallee F, Kohegyi E, Zhao J, McQuade R, Cox K, Sanchez R, van Beek A, Nyilas M, Carson W, Kurlan R. Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial Demonstrates the Efficacy and Safety of Oral Aripiprazole for the Treatment of Tourette's Disorder in Children and Adolescents. J Child Adolesc Psychopharmacol. 2017 Nov;27(9):771-781. doi: 10.1089/cap.2016.0026. Epub 2017 Jul 7.
- Background: PubMed 38479346Steuber ER, McGuire JF. A meta-analysis of transcranial magnetic stimulation in Tourette syndrome. J Psychiatr Res. 2024 May;173:34-40. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2024.02.057. Epub 2024 Mar 8.
- Background: PubMed 24268723Wu SW, Maloney T, Gilbert DL, Dixon SG, Horn PS, Huddleston DA, Eaton K, Vannest J. Functional MRI-navigated repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation over supplementary motor area in chronic tic disorders. Brain Stimul. 2014 Mar-Apr;7(2):212-8. doi: 10.1016/j.brs.2013.10.005. Epub 2013 Oct 29.
- Background: PubMed 33643191Fu M, Wei H, Meng X, Chen H, Shang B, Chen F, Huang Z, Sun Y, Wang Y. Effects of Low-Frequency Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation of the Bilateral Parietal Cortex in Patients With Tourette Syndrome. Front Neurol. 2021 Feb 12;12:602830. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2021.602830. eCollection 2021.
- Background: PubMed 24376426Wall CA, Croarkin PE, McClintock SM, Murphy LL, Bandel LA, Sim LA, Sampson SM. Neurocognitive effects of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation in adolescents with major depressive disorder. Front Psychiatry. 2013 Dec 12;4:165. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2013.00165. eCollection 2013.
- Background: PubMed 34978846Seewoo BJ, Hennessy LA, Jaeschke LA, Mackie LA, Etherington SJ, Dunlop SA, Croarkin PE, Rodger J. A Preclinical Study of Standard Versus Accelerated Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation for Depression in Adolescents. J Child Adolesc Psychopharmacol. 2022 Apr;32(3):187-193. doi: 10.1089/cap.2021.0100. Epub 2021 Dec 31.
- Background: PubMed 32919400Croarkin PE, Elmaadawi AZ, Aaronson ST, Schrodt GR Jr, Holbert RC, Verdoliva S, Heart KL, Demitrack MA, Strawn JR. Left prefrontal transcranial magnetic stimulation for treatment-resistant depression in adolescents: a double-blind, randomized, sham-controlled trial. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2021 Jan;46(2):462-469. doi: 10.1038/s41386-020-00829-y. Epub 2020 Sep 12.
- Individual participant dataSharing planned: No
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Parkinson's Disease
Referral and contact
AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals. Contact the study team or a site listed below; they decide who can take part.
Andrew M Lee principal investigator
University of California, San Francisco
1 site in 1 country: see every site and its status.
Questions about this trial
What is this clinical trial studying?
A study testing cTBS (accelerated continuous theta burst stimulation) in people with Tic Disorder, run by University of California, San Francisco at 1 site in United States.
The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.
Who may be eligible to take part?
The sponsor lists 9 inclusion and 6 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.
Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?
The record says: looking for participants now, as of the sponsor's last update on 24 Sep 2026. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.
Where is the study taking place?
The record lists 1 site in United States. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.
What are the possible benefits and risks?
They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.
Are results available for this study?
This study is still under way. Results are not available in the source record yet.
How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?
Contact Andrew M Lee (415-476-7000, AndrewMoses.Lee@ucsf.edu), or a site near the patient. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.
What does the primary outcome measure?
To assess the safety and tolerability of repeated theta burst TMS administration in adolescents age 15 - 35 years with CTD. (time frame: All protocol visits (treatment days 1 - 10)). It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.
Where can I read the original study information?
On the ClinicalTrials.gov record for NCT07839377, which also lists 32 linked publications.
Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?
No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.
How often is this information updated?
AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 24 Sep 2026.