Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder With rTMS

Last updated: October 27, 2025
Sponsor: University of California, Los Angeles
Overall Status: Active - Recruiting

Phase

N/A

Condition

Borderline Personality Disorder

Mood Disorders

Treatment

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)

Clinical Study ID

NCT07197502
23-001340
  • Ages 18-65
  • All Genders

Study Summary

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.

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.

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion

  • Age of 18-65

  • DSM-5 Diagnosis of BPD based upon a psychiatric evaluation and ZAN-BPD

  • Fluent English speaker

  • Signed informed consent

Study Design

Total Participants: 30
Treatment Group(s): 1
Primary Treatment: Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)
Phase:
Study Start date:
March 01, 2025
Estimated Completion Date:
December 31, 2027

Study Description

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a serious and pervasive psychiatric condition with a prevalence of 1-5% among the general population. Two core symptoms of BPD are dysfunctional emotion regulation and marked impulsivity resulting in severe psychological suffering in terms of depression and anxiety as well as maladaptive impulsive acts, particularly self-harming behaviors including suicide. Recent advances in affective neuroscience of BPD combined with progress in brain imaging and neuromodulation technologies have opened new avenues for the development of innovative, brain-based, and more effective treatments for BPD.

This project aims to test the efficacy of a novel circuit-based treatment for BPD. The investigators will utilize multimodal neuroimaging Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), and electroencephalogram (EEG) and BPD-, depression- and anxiety-related clinical scales to objectively measure the impact of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) treatment on overall BPD as well as depressive and anxiety symptom severity. Furthermore, a battery of cognitive tasks will be used to specifically measure the effect of TMS on the neurobehavioral indicators of impulsivity and emotion regulation.

Connect with a study center

  • Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA

    Los Angeles 5368361, California 5332921 90024
    United States

    Active - Recruiting

  • Semel Institute/ UCLA TMS

    Los Angeles 5368361, California 5332921 90024
    United States

    Active - Recruiting

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