Researchers are studying whether at-home brain stimulation can be delivered safely and practically over an extended course in women living with long COVID fatigue. LIFT is a 20-week remote study of the Lutea™ headband, an investigational device that delivers transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in 20-minute sessions you complete yourself at home. Everything happens through the Alethios app, with no clinic visits and no exercise or exertion testing. Every participant receives the active device, and participants receive up to $250 paid as each phase of the study is completed.
The study runs for 20 weeks and is fully remote. For the first four weeks you use no device at all and simply complete a daily fatigue rating plus a short medication and activity log, with a fatigue questionnaire every two weeks. For the next twelve weeks you complete five 20-minute stimulation sessions in each 7-day period, at whatever times work for you. The headband logs each session automatically, and you answer a brief tolerability check afterward. Once a month you complete a longer set of questionnaires covering sleep, mood, anxiety, quality of life, post-exertional malaise, and your overall sense of change. For the final four weeks you stop using the device and continue the questionnaires so the study can see whether any changes last.
Complete a short screening questionnaire to see whether you qualify. If you are eligible, the study team reviews your answers, and you can read through the full consent form at your own pace and sign it electronically through the Alethios platform. You can ask the study team questions at any point before you sign.
Your headband is shipped to you, along with instructional videos and a how-to guide. For the first four weeks you do not use the device at all. Instead you complete a daily fatigue rating and a short medication and activity log, plus a fatigue questionnaire every two weeks. This baseline period is how the study measures your usual pattern before stimulation starts. A $50 gift card is sent to adherent participants once this phase is complete.
You complete five 20-minute stimulation sessions in each 7-day period for twelve weeks, at times that suit you. The device logs every session automatically and syncs it to the study. After each session you answer a brief tolerability check, and you continue the daily and every-two-week questionnaires plus a monthly set covering sleep, mood, and quality of life. The study team monitors your data weekly and you can reach them at any time. $150 Amazon Gift Card is distributed to adherent participants once this phase is complete.
For the final four weeks you stop using the device and continue the questionnaires so the study can see whether any changes last. You then return the headband in the prepaid packaging provided. A final $50 Amazon Gift Card is distributed once this phase is complete, bringing the total to $250 across the 20-week study.
Fatigue is the most common and most disabling symptom of long COVID, and there is currently no approved treatment for it. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) delivers a weak, constant electrical current between two scalp electrodes to modulate activity in brain regions involved in fatigue, attention, and mood. The goal of this trial is to understand whether an extended at-home course is practical and well tolerated, how fatigue and related symptoms change over time, and what a future controlled trial would need to look like.
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