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 the craving or other manifestations of addiction. As many of the addictions are caused by the same brain targets, the decision was made to put all of the addictions together in one listing.
How it Works
Where the beams converge, focused ultrasound can produce neuromodulation, which alters the nervous activity of the target cells which may decrease the craving for the item being sought. There are a variety of items that can be the focus of the addiction, and the ones listed below are ones that we have seen investigated or that we believe may be topics in the future. The list of the items being sought can be extensive, but alcohol, food, gambling, nicotine, opioids, sex and stimulants are the major ones in play currently. There are many patterns of this disease, but it comes down to a profound craving for the desired item, and numerous patterns of activity to help accomplish that task. The main use of focused ultrasound is to alter the brain reward mechanism, to minimize or eliminate that craving.
Advantages
Focused ultrasound is a noninvasive and non-pharmacologic technique that can reach the desired target(s) without damaging surrounding tissue. It can also be repeated, if necessary.
Clinical Trials
Alcohol
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.
Food
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.
Gambling
There are no currently recruiting focused ultrasound studies on gambling.
Multiple Drug Usage
There are increasing use of multiple drugs in those suffering from addiction, and there is a new study looking at those using a wide variety of these drugs at West Virginia University.
Nicotine
A clinical trial at at the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Washington DC VA Medical Center is examining the effect of LIFU neuromodulation on smoking craving and the brain’s response to smoking cues in individuals who smoke cigarettes.
Opioids
A clinical trial at West Virginia University using focused ultrasound to modulate the impulses that stimulate desire has completed patient enrollment.
A second clinical trial being formulated at West Virginia University is a randomized, blinded, partial crossover treatment of the nucleus accumbens and the ventral cortex for patients with severe refractory OUD.
A clinical trial is being done at the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Washington DC VA Medical Center looking at LIFU stimulation of the anterior insula, and the impact on those with opioid addiction.
Other
A clinical trial is being formulated at Virginia Polytechnical Institute and State University that is looking to use neuromodulation in patients with craving, measure of pain, and anxiety.
Sex
There are no currently recruiting focused ultrasound studies on the abuse of sex.
Stimulants
A clinical trial using focused ultrasound to treat patients for cocaine abuse has begun at the University of Virginia.
A clinical trial in Korea is using focused ultrasound to treat patients who are addicted to stimulant use.
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/.
Find a Treatment Site
Search for a treatment center or clinical trial near you.
Regulatory Approval and Reimbursement
Focused ultrasound treatment for addiction is not yet approved by regulatory bodies or covered by medical insurance companies.
Notable Papers
Wang F, Paerhati H, Lin Z, Liu S, Sun B, Li D. Treatment of alcohol use disorder via magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound ablation surgery. Addict Sci Clin Pract. 2026 Jan 14;21(1):18. doi: 10.1186/s13722-025-00644-0. PMID: 41535875
Zubair M. Re: Rezai A, Ranjan M, Bhagwat A et al. “Brain injury during focused ultrasound neuromodulation for substance use disorder.” Brain stimul. 2025. Brain Stimul. 2026 Jan 14;19(2):103030. doi: 10.1016/j.brs.2026.103030. PMID: 41544818
Fouragnan E. Response to: Brain injury during focused ultrasound neuromodulation for substance use disorder. Brain Stimul. 2025 Dec 1;19(1):102989. doi: 10.1016/j.brs.2025.102989. PMID: 41338480
Rezai A, Ranjan M, Bhagwat A, Arsiwala T, Carpenter J, Schafer M, Adams G, Marton J, Tirumalai P, Farmer D, Mahoney J, Finomore V. Response to: letters referenced to brain Injury during focused ultrasound neuromodulation for substance use disorder. Brain Stimul. 2025 Dec 30:103014. doi: 10.1016/j.brs.2025.103014. PMID: 41478612
Davidson B, Schmidt FA, Bichsel O, Hajiabadi MM, Lozano AM. Transcranial Focused Ultrasound: A Transformative Tool for Intracranial Ablation, Drug Delivery, and Neuromodulation. IEEE Rev Biomed Eng. 2025 Nov 11;PP. doi: 10.1109/RBME.2025.3624970. PMID: 41217925
Pauly KB. Letter to the Editor in response to “Brain injury during focused ultrasound neuromodulation for substance use disorder“. Brain Stimul. 2025;18(6):2075-2076. doi: 10.1016/j.brs.2025.11.004. Epub 2025 Nov 6. PMID: 41205799
Klein-Flugge MC, Airan RD, Attali D, Aubry JF, Bubrick EJ, Caskey CF, Cleveland RO, Fouragnan EF, Jones RM, Khokhlova TD, Kubanek J, Lea-Banks H, Legon W, McDannold N, Murphy KR, Osada T, Pauly KB, Pichardo S, Sallet J, Sun L, Treeby BE, Zheng H, Martin E, Verhagen L. Open Letter on Intervention Regimes and Adverse Events in Focused Ultrasound for Neuromodulation. Brain Stimul. 2025 Nov 27:102994. doi: 10.1016/j.brs.2025.102994. PMID: 41317895
Rezai A, Ranjan M, Bhagwat A, Arsiwala T, Carpenter J, Schafer M, Adams G, Marton J, Tirumalai P, Farmer D, Mahoney J, Finomore V. Brain Injury During Focused Ultrasound Neuromodulation for Substance Use Disorder. Brain Stimul. 2025 Oct 31:S1935-861X(25)00358-4. doi: 10.1016/j.brs.2025.10.012. PMID: 41177518
Kanen JW, Figee M, Goldstein RZ, Schiller D. Can Focused Ultrasound Disrupt Memory Reconsolidation? Biol Psychiatry. 2025 Sep 2:S0006-3223(25)01382-4. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2025.06.038. PMID: 40900058
Mahoney JJ, Thompson-Lake DGY, Ranjan M, Marton JL, Carpenter JS, D’Haese PF, Arsiwala T, Suffridge J, Farmer DL, Finomore VS, Tirumalai P, Hodder SL, Rezai AR. A case report of focused ultrasound neuromodulation of the bilateral nucleus accumbens for methamphetamine use disorder. Exp Clin Psychopharmacol. 2025 Sep 1. doi: 10.1037/pha0000793. PMID: 40892597
Martin E, Roberts M, Grigoras IF, Wright O, Nandi T, Rieger SW, Campbell J, den Boer T, Cox BT, Stagg CJ, Treeby BE. Ultrasound system for precise neuromodulation of human deep brain circuits. Nat Commun. 2025 Sep 5;16(1):8024. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-63020-1. PMID: 40913042
Yoo SS, Ewell MS, Smith EC, Yu IL, Kim HC, Desai RI. Transcranial focused ultrasound to nucleus accumbens reverses fentanyl-induced conditioned place preference in rats. PLoS One. 2025 Aug 22;20(8):e0329748. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0329748. eCollection 2025. PMID: 40845058
Watts WW, Clennell B, Jiang JK, Izaki-Lee K, Binodh A, Cuthell R, Tonyali D, Crompton J, Taaffe R, Alqahtani A, Andrieu A, Besinga IR, Heesom K, Steward TGJ, Cho K, Drinkwater BW, Molnár E, Whitcomb DJ. Brief transcranial focused ultrasound stimulation causes lasting modifications to the synaptic circuitry of the hippocampus. Brain Stimul. 2025 Aug 20;18(5):1587-1599. doi: 10.1016/j.brs.2025.08.014. PMID: 40846278
Rezai A, Thompson-Lake DGY, D’Haese PF, Meyer N, Ranjan M, Farmer D, Finomore V, Marton JL, Hodder S, Carpenter J, Bhagwat A, Berry J, Tirumalai P, Adams G, Arsiwala T, Blanke O, Mahoney JJ. Focused Ultrasound Neuromodulation: Exploring a Novel Treatment for Severe Opioid Use Disorder. Biol Psychiatry. 2025 Jan 9:S0006-3223(25)00023-X. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2025.01.001. PMID: 39798597
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
Mahoney JJ 3rd, Thompson-Lake DGY, Ranjan M, Marton JL, Carpenter JS, Zheng W, Berry JH, Farmer DL, D’Haese P, Finomore VS, Tirumalai P, Mears AS, Suffridge J, Ames A, Hodder SL, Rezai AR. Low-Intensity Focused Ultrasound Targeting the Bilateral Nucleus Accumbens as a Potential Treatment for Substance Use Disorder: A First-in-Human Report. Biol Psychiatry. 2023 Dec 1;94(11):e41-e43. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2023.06.031. Epub 2023 Aug 22. PMID: 37610405
Mahoney JJ, Haut MW, Carpenter J, Ranjan M, Thompson-Lake DGY, Marton JL, Zheng W, Berry JH, Tirumalai P, Mears A, D’Haese P, Finomore VS, Hodder SL, Rezai AR. Low-intensity focused ultrasound targeting the nucleus accumbens as a potential treatment for substance use disorder: safety and feasibility clinical trial. Front Psychiatry. 2023 Sep 15;14:1211566. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1211566. eCollection 2023.
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.
Deveci E, Kilic A, Yilmaz O, Nabi A, Ergun AS, Bozkurt A, Kurtulmuş A, Öztürk A, Eşrefoğlu M, Aydın MS, Şahan E Kırpınar İ. The effects of focused ultrasound pulsation of nucleus accumbens in opioid-dependent rats. Psychiatry and Clinical Psychopharmacology. 2019 Jul.
The Focused Ultrasound Foundation Psychiatric Workshop Summary, October, 2017
Click here for additional references from PubMed.