Could a mild electric zap replace morphine for ICU patients?
NCT ID NCT06179199
First seen Jun 27, 2026 · Last updated Jun 27, 2026
Summary
This study tests whether a non-invasive brain stimulation technique called tDCS can reduce pain in sedated patients in the intensive care unit (ICU). Forty adults on ventilators and receiving morphine will receive either real or fake tDCS. The goal is to see if tDCS can lower pain and the need for morphine, which can have side effects.
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Study facts
What this study's own registry entry says, in plain language.
- Phase
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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
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About 40 people
The number the study aims to enrol. It can still change while the study runs.
- Expected to start
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Jan 2026
An estimate. Start dates often move.
- Expected to finish
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Dec 2026
An estimate. End dates often move.
- Lead sponsor
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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
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18 to 80 years
- Sex
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Anyone
- Healthy volunteers
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Not accepted
This study is not open to healthy volunteers. The entry requirements below say who it is open to.
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Copied word for word from the study's registry entry, so the wording is the study team's rather than ours.
Inclusion Criteria: * Age from 18 to 80 years, * Sedated patient requiring mechanical ventilation for at least 48 hours with administration of morphine. * Person affiliated to the social security system or beneficiary of an assimilated regime. * RASS ≤ -2 * Close consent or emergency inclusion Exclusion Criteria: * History of epilepsy. * Severe brain injury (head trauma, stroke, neuromeningeal infection, status epilepticus). * Presence of intracranial ferromagnetic material. * Presence of electronic stimulators or implants (e.g. pacemaker, spinal cord or intracranial stimulator). * Facial trauma preventing eye opening. * Patients who are blind and/or have eye damage. * Protected persons: pregnant women, parturients, nursing mothers, persons deprived of their liberty by judicial or administrative decision, persons under legal protection. * Subjects excluded from another study.
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Conditions
The condition(s) this trial relates to.
As listed by the trial registrant
The condition terms exactly as the trial's registrant entered them.
How to take part
Only the study team decides who joins. These are the ways to reach them.
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The places running it
1 site. The list below names each one and where it is.
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The official record
ClinicalTrials.gov lists the study team's own contact details, including names and phone numbers. We don't republish those.
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A doctor treating you
A doctor who knows your case can contact a study site on your behalf, and can tell you whether this study is worth pursuing at all.
Contacts and locations
Locations
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Pain Management Center - Chuga
Grenoble, France
More trials for these conditions
Other studies related to the condition(s) this trial covers.