Den här översättningen är inte klar ännu. Den här sidan är just nu på engelska.

Gå till den engelska sidan

Cure My Disease

Don't miss your cure!

 Log in / Sign up

Brain stimulation study reveals empathy wiring in borderline personality disorder

NCT ID NCT06702215

Knowledge-focused Sponsor: IRCCS Centro San Giovanni di Dio Fatebenefratelli Source: ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

What the study statuses mean

This study's is highlighted.

Recruitment status, easiest to join first

Recruiting now
This trial is taking on new participants right now.
Not yet recruiting
Registered, but not yet taking participants.
By invitation only
Not open to general applications. Only people the study team invites can take part.
Paused
Paused for now. It may or may not start again.
Ongoing
Running, but no longer taking on new participants.
Completed This study
The trial has finished. Results may not be published yet.
Stopped early
Stopped early, before it reached the end. That can be for many reasons, including safety.
Cancelled
Cancelled before anyone took part.

Expanded access (not trials)

Expanded access
Not a trial. This treatment can be requested outside a study, case by case, for people who qualify.
Expanded access (paused)
Not a trial. The treatment can normally be requested outside a study, but is unavailable right now.
Expanded access (ended)
Not a trial. The treatment could once be requested outside a study, but no longer can.
Approved
The treatment has been approved, so it is available normally rather than through this programme.

When the status isn't known

Details not published
The full record has not been published yet, so there is little to show here.
Status unknown
This status has not been confirmed recently, so it may be out of date.

First seen Jun 24, 2026 · Last updated Jun 27, 2026 · Updated 1 time

Summary

This study looked at how the brain's 'mirror system' for touch works in people with borderline personality disorder (BPD). Researchers used a non-invasive brain stimulation technique called TMS to temporarily change brain activity while participants watched a hand being touched. The goal was to understand differences in empathy-related brain wiring. 71 people took part, including those with BPD and healthy volunteers.

What this could mean

Our plain-language read of the trial. This is informational only, not medical advice or a prediction.

Active substance
transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)
What this could lead to
If successful, this study could help explain how empathy works differently in people with borderline personality disorder.
What could go wrong
This is a small, early-stage study with no treatment goal. It only measures brain responses and may not lead to any direct benefit for patients.

This is an AI summary of the original study and may miss details. Read our disclaimer.

Study facts

What this study's own registry entry says, in plain language.

Phase

Not a phased trial

Phase numbers describe drug development. The registry uses this when they do not apply, as it does for trials of devices, procedures or behaviour changes, and for observational studies.

Participants

71 people

The number who actually took part.

Started

Sep 2023

Finished

Nov 2025

Lead sponsor

Other sponsor

The registry's catch-all category, for sponsors it does not file as a company, a government agency, or a research network.

Who can take part

This study's own entry requirements. Only the study team can say for certain whether you qualify.

Ages

18 to 40 years

Sex

Anyone

Healthy volunteers

Accepted

You do not need to have the condition being studied to take part.

Show the full entry requirements

Copied word for word from the study's registry entry, so the wording is the study team's rather than ours.

Inclusion Criteria: * All participants: right handedness (Edinburgh Handedness Inventory; Oldfield, 1971) * Patients group: clinical diagnosis of BPD. The severity of the symptoms will be assessed by means of the Zanarini rating scale for BPD (ZAN-BPD, Zanarini, 2003) and the Symptoms Check-list 90 Revised (SCL-90-R, Derogatis, 1994). Depressive symptoms will be evaluated with the Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II, Beck, 1988), impulsiveness with the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS, Patton, Stanford, \& Barratt, 1995), and alexithymia with the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20, Bagby, Taylor, \& Parker, 1994). Moreover, interpersonal functioning will be evaluated with the Interpersonal Problems (IIP, Pilkonis, Kim, Proietti, \& Barkham, 1996), and attachment style will be assessed with the Attachment Style Questionnaire (Feeney, Noller, \& Hanrahan, 1994). Finally, the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ; Bernstein \& Fink, 1998) will be administered for the assessment of traumatic experiences, and the Inventory of statements about self-injury (ISAS, Klonsky \& Glenn, 2009) for the evaluation of self-harm. Exclusion Criteria: * All participants: Contraindication to TMS (Rossi et al., 2021) * All participants: Anamnesis or evidence of any central nervous system alteration * Patients group: Comorbidity with schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, according to DSM-5, and in case of unstable pharmacological therapy

Get updates

Get notified about this study

Sign up to get updates when this study changes or when new studies for Borderline personality disorder (BPD) are added.

Vår säkerhetsrekommendation!

Genom att skicka in godkänner du våra Användarvillkor

Conditions

The condition(s) this trial relates to.

borderline personality disorder

As listed by the trial registrant

The condition terms exactly as the trial's registrant entered them.

Borderline personality disorder (BPD)

Contacts and locations

Locations

  • IRCCS Istituto Centro San Giovanni di Dio Fatebenefratelli

    Brescia, Brescia, 25125, Italy

More trials for these conditions

Other studies related to the condition(s) this trial covers.