Trial reportMolecular psychiatry2026
Efficacy and safety of transcranial alternating current stimulation in adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: a double-blind randomized sham-controlled trial.
Trial report in Molecular psychiatry, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- High-Intensity Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation for Emotion Regulation and Attentional Bias in Adolescents With Nonsuicidal Self-Injury: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2026Trial
- Neurophysiological effects of transcranial alternating current stimulation combined with multidisciplinary rehabilitation in Parkinson's disease.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Trial
- Establishing clinically important differences in adults with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder.General psychiatry · 2026Article
- Digital health technologies for adults with ADHD: a scoping review.Frontiers in digital health · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) has been reported to improve attention-related neurophysiological measures in individuals with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD); however, robust clinical evidence remains limited. This randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled trial aimed to explore the clinical efficacy, safety, and underlying neural mechanisms of tACS in adults with ADHD. A total of 56 adults with ADHD were randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to receive either active tACS or sham stimulation across 20 sessions over four consecutive weeks, with follow-up assessments conducted at week 8 and week 16. Clinical symptoms and resting-state magnetoencephalography (MEG) data were collected before and after the intervention. The tACS group showed significantly greater improvement in inattention symptoms compared to the sham group at week 4, as measured by the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale - inattention subscale (ASRS-IA) (-10.1 vs. -5.5, p < 0.001, Cohen's d = 1.02). This improvement was sustained at week 8 but attenuated at week 16. Safety profiles were comparable between the two groups. Furthermore, the reduction in ASRS-IA scores was positively correlated with decreased gamma-band connectivity between the orbitofrontal cortex and the precuneus, indicating a desynchronization of neural activity in these brain regions. These findings suggest that tACS may serve as a promising neuromodulation intervention for adult ADHD, demonstrating both clinical benefits and specific neurophysiological mechanisms.
trial registrationChiCTR Identifier: ChiCTR2400081121.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.