Home Diseases and Conditions Mood Disorder

Mood Disorder

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Development Stage

Early Stage

Focused ultrasound research is in the laboratory phase and is not yet available for patients.

Clinical Trials

Focused ultrasound for this condition is being researched in clinical trials.

International Approval

Focused ultrasound is approved to treat this condition outside the US. Patients can seek commercial treatment at participating international sites.

FDA Approved

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved focus ultrasound for this condition. Patients can seek commercial treatment at participating sites.

Early Stage

Clinical Trials

International

FDA Approved

Focused ultrasound for this condition is being researched in clinical trials.

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 mood disorder, more technically described as “Unspecified Mood (Affective) disorder”. This novel technology focuses beams of ultrasound energy precisely and accurately on targets deep in the brain without damaging surrounding normal tissue.

How it Works
Where the beams converge, focused ultrasound produces neuromodulation of the targeted tissue, which alters the reactivity of stimuli and enables a positive shift in mood. While significant work has been accomplished, there is still much to be done before this technology will be widely available.

Advantages
The primary options for treatment of mood disorder include medication.

Focused ultrasound is non-invasive, so it does not carry added concerns like surgical wound healing or infection. It can reach the desired target without damaging surrounding tissue, and it can be repeated, if necessary.

Clinical Trials

A clinical trial in California that was treating patients with mood disorders has been completed. 

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 mood disorders is not yet approved by regulatory bodies or covered by medical insurance companies.

Notable Papers

Hoang-Dang B, Halavi SE, Rotstein NM, Spivak NM, Dang NH, Cvijanovic L, Hiller SH, Vallejo-Martelo M, Rosenberg BM, Swenson A, Becerra S, Sun M, Revett ME, Kronemyer D, Berlow R, Craske MG, Suthana N, Monti MM, Zbozinek TD, Bookheimer SY, Kuhn TP. Transcranial Focused Ultrasound Targeting the Amygdala May Increase Psychophysiological and Subjective Negative Emotional Reactivity in Healthy Older Adults. Biol Psychiatry Glob Open Sci. 2024 Jun 5;4(5):100342. doi: 10.1016/j.bpsgos.2024.100342. eCollection 2024 Sep. PMID: 39092138 

Sanguinetti JL, Hameroff S, Smith EE, Sato T, Daft CMW, Tyler WJ, Allen JJB. Transcranial Focused Ultrasound to the Right Prefrontal Cortex Improves Mood and Alters Functional Connectivity in Humans. Front Hum Neurosci. 2020 Feb 28;14:52. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2020.00052. eCollection 2020.

Click here for additional references from PubMed.