Focused Ultrasound Therapy
Focused ultrasound is a noninvasive, therapeutic technology with the potential to improve the quality of life and decrease the cost of care for patients with addiction. This novel technology focuses beams of ultrasound energy precisely and accurately on targets deep in the brain, known to be involved in manifestation of addiction, without damaging surrounding normal tissue.
How it Works
Where the beams converge, focused ultrasound can produce biological effects that can potentially help with addiction. One mechanism is thermal ablation of the target tissue and the second is neuromodulation (altering the effects of neural impulses). Though still in the very early stages of development, for certain patients, these techniques have potential to provide a noninvasive, and more effective treatment for addiction.
Specifically, opioid addiction is currently a major problem. There is an ongoing clinical trial investigating focused ultrasound’s role in addressing this specific type of addiction. Please see the “Addiction, Opioid” heading for more information about this topic.
Advantages
Focused ultrasound can reach the desired target(s) without damaging surrounding tissue, and it can be repeated, if necessary.
Clinical Trials
A clinical trial using focused ultrasound to treat patients for cocaine abuse has begun at the University of Virginia.
A clinical trial using focused ultrasound is treating patients with food addiction at the University of Utah.
A clinical trial using focused ultrasound is treating patients with food addiction at the University of West Virginia.
A clinical trial in Virginia Tech is using focused ultrasound to treat patients with chronic pain and alcohol use disorder.
A clinical trial in California is treating patients with alcohol use disorder.
The Foundation updates these pages regularly, but with the increasing number of clinical trials, we want to be sure that our audience has the latest information available. Therefore, we also added the website search information for the above trials. If you click here, it will take you to the latest information available from https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/.
Regulatory Approval and Reimbursement
Focused ultrasound treatment for addiction is not yet approved by regulatory bodies or covered by medical insurance companies.
Notable Papers
de Souza DN, Seas A, Blethen K, Feigal J, Shah BR, Grant GA, Harward SC. Focused ultrasound as an emerging therapy for neuropsychiatric disease: Historical perspectives and a review of current clinical data. Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2025 Feb 12. doi: 10.1111/pcn.13799. PMID: 39936841
Olaitan G, Ganesana M, Strohman A, Lynch WJ, Legon W, Venton BJ. Focused Ultrasound Modulates Dopamine in a Mesolimbic Reward Circuit. J Neurochem. 2025 Feb;169(2):e70001. doi: 10.1111/jnc.70001. PMID: 39902479
Shi Y, Wu W. Advances in transcranial focused ultrasound neuromodulation for mental disorders. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 2025 Jan 10;136:111244. doi: 10.1016/j.pnpbp.2024.111244. Epub 2025 Jan 3. PMID: 39756638
Feng Y, Sun J, Wang T, Zheng Y, Zhao Y, Li Y, Lai S, Xu Y, Zhu M. Focused Ultrasound Combined With Microbubbles Attenuate Symptoms in Heroin-Addicted Mice. Ultrasound Med Biol. 2024 Dec;50(12):1764-1776. doi: 10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2024.06.014. Epub 2024 Sep 23. PMID: 39317628
Peng X, Connolly DJ, Sutton F, Robinson J, Baker-Vogel B, Short EB, Badran BW. Non-invasive suppression of the human nucleus accumbens (NAc) with transcranial focused ultrasound (tFUS) modulates the reward network: a pilot study. Front Hum Neurosci. 2024 Apr 2;18:1359396. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2024.1359396. eCollection 2024. PMID: 38628972
Lin CW, Cheng MH, Fan CH, Chen HH, Yeh CK. Focused ultrasound stimulation of infralimbic cortex attenuates reinstatement of methamphetamine-induced conditioned place preference in rats. Neurotherapeutics. 2024 Feb 13:e00328. doi: 10.1016/j.neurot.2024.e00328. PMID: 38355360
Deveci E, Akbaş F, Ergun AŞ, Kurtulmuş A, Koçak AB, Boyraz RK, Tok OE, Aydın MŞ, Kılıç Ö, Bozkurt A, Uysal Ö, Eşrefoğlu M, Koçyiğit A, Öztürk A, Lawrence AJ, Kırpınar I. The Effects of Transcranial Focused Ultrasound Stimulation of Nucleus Accumbens on Neuronal Gene Expression and Brain Tissue in High Alcohol-Preferring Rats. Mol Neurobiol. 2022 Nov 22. doi: 10.1007/s12035-022-03130-9.
Mahoney JJ 3rd, Hanlon CA, Marshalek PJ, Rezai AR, Krinke L. Transcranial magnetic stimulation, deep brain stimulation, and other forms of neuromodulation for substance use disorders: Review of modalities and implications for treatment. J Neurol Sci. 2020 Sep 20;418:117149. doi: 10.1016/j.jns.2020.117149.
Mooney SJ, Nobrega JN, Levitt AJ, Hynynen K. Antidepressant effects of focused ultrasound induced blood-brain-barrier opening. Behav Brain Res. 2018 Apr 16;342:57-61. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2018.01.004. Epub 2018 Jan 8.
The Focused Ultrasound Foundation Psychiatric Workshop Summary, October, 2017