Hanover

Researchers are assessing the usability of the Cogito digital therapeutics development platform, which is designed to help create digital behavioral therapies without programming skills. This initial study focuses on using Cogito to build a digital therapeutic aimed at substance use disorders SUDs. The study explores how this platform can support researchers in developing treatments for various health conditions and populations. Participants will engage with Cogito by completing an interactive tutorial that explains the platform and guides them through creating sample guides, activities, and surveys. They will also take part in a functionality scavenger hunt to explore different Cogito features by building new guides and surveys. After these tasks, participants will complete surveys to share their feedback on the platforms usability. During the study, participants experiences will be assessed using tools like the System Usability Scale and Visual Analog Scales immediately after the feedback sessions. The study involves no treatment interventions but focuses on evaluating how easy and effective the Cogito platform is for researchers in this field. Participation is expected to last for the duration of the tutorial, scavenger hunt, and feedback assessments.

Researchers are evaluating the effectiveness of I-CARE, a digital health program designed to support adolescents aged 12 to 17 who experience suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts, or self-harm and are awaiting psychiatric hospitalization in emergency departments. This study addresses the challenge of psychiatric boarding, where youth remain in the emergency department while waiting for a psychiatric inpatient bed, a vulnerable time with little research on supportive interventions. The trial compares I-CARE against standard safety supervision to determine if it can improve care quality during boarding. I-CARE is a tablet-based program featuring seven web-based animated videos and workbook exercises that teach evidence-based psychosocial skills grounded in cognitive behavioral therapy and dialectical behavior therapy. The program is facilitated by trained staff who are not mental health professionals and is delivered alongside usual one-on-one safety supervision during boarding. Participants are randomized to either receive I-CARE in addition to standard safety supervision or standard safety supervision alone. Participants will be assessed at multiple points at hospital admission, discharge about 72 hours after admission, and then 30, 60, and 90 days after discharge. Researchers will use standardized questionnaires to measure depression, anxiety, stress, suicidal risk, and suicidal behaviors. The study includes ongoing monitoring and data collection over these time points to evaluate the impact of the intervention on youth mental health during and after psychiatric boarding.

This research aims to understand how certain parenting feeding styles, childrens eating behaviors, and genetic risk factors contribute to weight gain in young children aged 2 to 5 years. The focus is on how parental control feeding practices like restricting food or using food to manage emotions might affect childrens tendency to overeat and gain excess body fat, especially in children genetically predisposed to obesity. The study investigates how these factors interact over time to influence obesity risk during the critical preschool years. Children around 2.5 years old will be enrolled and assessed every six months until they turn 5. Researchers will measure childrens genetic risk for obesity using specific gene markers and will objectively evaluate childrens attention to food and overeating behaviors using eye-tracking and an eating in the absence of hunger test. Two study groups involve different measurements of attentional bias to food cues, allowing comparison of these behavioral traits. Participants and their parents will attend regular study visits every six months for about two and a half years. During these visits, parents feeding practices, childrens appetitive traits, eating behaviors, and body fat will be measured. The study uses questionnaires, behavioral tests, and genetic analysis to track changes over time. This detailed monitoring aims to better understand how parenting and genetics affect childrens eating habits and weight gain during early childhood.

This research aims to explore whether non-invasive brain stimulation called transcranial temporal interference stimulation tTIS can reduce negative emotions and how expectations from care providers influence these effects. The study focuses on two main questions if active tTIS reduces negative affect more than a sham inactive version, and whether positive treatment expectations improve these effects. The study includes participants acting as patients and doctors to investigate these effects through multiple sessions. Participants take part in two experiments. In Experiment 1, 36 participants complete four sessions combining active or sham tTIS with positive or negative placebo messaging in a crossover design, receiving stimulation for 20 minutes or a brief sham stimulation. In Experiment 2, 160 participants 120 patients and 40 doctors engage in two sessions with sham tTIS only, where doctors deliver placebo interventions and monitor patient responses. Stimulation targets the anteriormid-cingulate cortex using specific frequencies and intensities. During the study, participants complete negative affect tasks before and after each stimulation. Physiological measures like ECG, respiration, skin conductance, and others are recorded. MRI scans and behavioral assessments are also performed. Researchers measure cognitive effort, fear, and pain ratings, along with autonomic responses, to evaluate the effects. Sessions are spaced at least 48 hours apart, and the entire testing occurs within one month.

Researchers are evaluating two methods of patient, public, and clinician involvement PPCI in qualitative research a Consultative PPCI model and a Collaborative PPCI model. This randomized controlled trial RCT aims to compare these approaches across three real-world qualitative studies addressing pediatric mental health, cancer screening, and serious illness. The goal is to understand which PPCI method better increases engagement, trust, and the patient-centeredness of research, especially among historically underrepresented groups. Participants will be randomly assigned to either the Consultative PPCI group, which uses Community Advisory Boards CAB with four quarterly meetings sharing leadership between participants and researchers, or the Collaborative PPCI group, called the Participatory Approach to Qualitative Research PAQ, involving four idea coproduction sessions and close collaboration with study staff. Both groups will have trained facilitators guiding the engagement during an 18-month study period. Throughout the study, participants will contribute to all stages of the qualitative research projects including design, data collection, analysis, and sharing results. The research team will assess participant engagement using the Patient Engagement in Research scale PEIRS-22 as the primary outcome after 18 months. Secondary outcomes include measures of partnership trust and patient-centeredness of research. The trial involves ongoing monitoring of participant experiences and partnership dynamics to evaluate differences between the two PPCI models.

This research aims to evaluate whether continuous data collected from smartphones can predict the return of depression symptoms in adults. The study focuses on patients treated for depression who have been discharged without symptoms and seeks to improve early monitoring and intervention for depression relapse using digital tools. The study has two phases. In Phase 1, participants will download the MoodTriggers app on their smartphones, which collects various sensor data related to mood, sleep, social contact, and heart rate. Phase 2 is randomized half of the participants will use the app while the other half will receive usual care. Both groups will complete monthly mood questionnaires over six months post-discharge. Participants will be monitored for six months, starting from discharge. They will complete monthly mood surveys, and the app will collect continuous sensor data on behavior and physiological measures. The main outcome measured is depression relapse within six months. Researchers will also assess participants views on the benefits and barriers of using this smartphone monitoring method. The study is sponsored by Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.

Researchers are studying how the brain processes thermal pain across different body sites and how a placebo cream affects this experience. The study aims to understand brain activity related to pain sensation, unpleasantness, and location, both before and during painful thermal stimulation. This research explores psychological influences on pain, including anxiety and placebo effects, to improve pain management and therapy. Participants will undergo two hours of functional MRI scanning. In the first hour, they will experience painful heat and non-painful warmth at eight body sites and listen to an aversive sound to isolate neural signatures of pain components. During the second hour, participants will receive either a placebo cream described as analgesic or a control cream described as having no effect, applied to one of the body sites, followed by thermal pain tasks to assess brain responses. Throughout the study, participants will complete pain intensity and unpleasantness ratings using the Bartoshuk Labeled Magnitude Scale after each pain delivery. Brain activity related to pain sensation, aversiveness, and somatotopy will be measured using fMRI. The study includes monitoring for safety and cream tolerance, with total participation lasting the duration of the imaging sessions.

Researchers are studying the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation tDCS applied to the left primary motor cortex M1 on thermal pain perception, pain-related decision making, and placebo effects. This randomized, double-blind crossover study involves up to 50 adult participants who undergo four sessions one initial pain calibration and three experimental sessions with anodal, cathodal, or sham tDCS. The study aims to understand how different tDCS conditions influence pain ratings and altruistic behavior during social decision-making tasks. Participants complete an initial pain calibration session to determine their individual pain and tolerance thresholds using controlled heat stimuli on the forearm. Following calibration, participants attend three full study sessions where they receive one of three tDCS interventionsanodal, cathodal, or shameach lasting 20 minutes with a 2 mA current applied via electrodes placed on the scalp. Each session includes pain testing before and after tDCS, a pain-monetary decision-making task, and social placebo pain tests, all conducted inside an MRI scanner. During the study sessions, participants engage in multiple pain trials at their unique temperature thresholds and complete decision-making tasks involving offers of pain and monetary rewards for themselves or others. Researchers measure pain perception using a visual analogue scale shortly after each stimulus and assess decision-making and placebo responses. The sessions are spaced at least five days apart, and participants complete questionnaires about sensations induced by tDCS. The total participation period varies, with assessments occurring during each of the four sessions.

Researchers are studying how different virtual spatial environments and the ability to control pain affect pain perception, anxiety, and motivated behavior. The study explores how people respond to pain and threat in safe, controllable, and uncontrollable contexts, focusing on how these factors influence brain activity, emotional states, and behavior. This work aims to understand placebo-related mechanisms such as perceived control, learning, emotional engagement, and distraction in shaping pain and anxiety. Participants will experience three virtual rooms one safe with no pain, one with controllable threat where they can use a button to reduce pain, and one with uncontrollable threat where pain cannot be avoided. They will navigate mazes in each room and perform tasks while receiving thermal pain stimuli in some contexts. The study includes multiple sessions involving pain calibration, virtual exploration, functional MRI scanning during tasks, extinction phases where pain is uncontrollable in all contexts, and reversal learning where threat conditions change. During the study, participants will provide pain and anxiety ratings, perform memory and navigational tasks, and have their autonomic responses measured via skin conductance, breathing, and heart rate. Brain activity is recorded using MRI while participants engage with the virtual environments and tasks. The study will assess how control and context affect pain perception, anxiety, memory, and behavior over repeated sessions lasting from about 1 to 2 hours each, with a total participation time spanning several sessions.