Efficacy and Mechanism of Transcranial Temporal Interference Stimulation (tTIS) in the Treatment of Adolescent Depression

This trial is a single-center, single-blind, randomized, sham-stimulation controlled clinical trial. The primary objective of the trial is to detect the targeted effect of tTIS on the nucleus accumbens of adolescent depression patients using functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The secondary objective is to evaluate the potential therapeutic efficacy of TIS treatment for adolescent MDD by assessing changes in clinical characteristics of participants, electrophysiological outcomes, and providing feasibility and tolerance estimates for large-scale efficacy trials. Thirty adolescent MDD participants aged 13 to 17 will be recruited and randomly assigned to receive 10 TIS treatments or sham stimulation treatments (15 participants per group). The trial includes pre-treatment and post-treatment MRI brain scans, clinical assessments, and resting-state EEG, fNIRS acquisition. Follow-ups will be conducted at baseline, after the 10th day of treatment, at the 4th week, and the 8th week. The Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS), the 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD-17), and the Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS) will be used to assess changes in depressive symptoms of the subjects. The Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAMA) and the Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) will be used to assess anxiety symptoms of the subjects. The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised China (WAIS-RC) will be used to assess cognitive function of the subjects.