ArticleBiological psychiatry2025
Focused Ultrasound Neuromodulation: Exploring a Novel Treatment for Severe Opioid Use Disorder.
Article in Biological psychiatry, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Rewiring reward in addiction: a systematic review of human evidence for deep brain stimulation and lesion approaches in substance use disorders.Acta neurochirurgica · 2026Pooled it
- Non-invasive brain stimulation for treating cognitive and neuropsychiatric non-motor symptoms in Parkinson's disease and atypical parkinsonism: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2026Pooled it
- Focused ultrasound neuromodulation for psychiatric disorders: a scoping review of clinical applications and current progress.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2026Review
- Focused Ultrasound Ablation for Neurological Disorders.Biological psychiatry · 2026Review
- Empirical limitations of current low-intensity focused ultrasound simulation platforms.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Treatment of alcohol use disorder via magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound ablation surgery.Addiction science & clinical practice · 2026Article
- Transcranial Ultrasound Stimulation as an Emerging Treatment for Substance use Disorder: Promise and Precaution.Current addiction reports · 2026Review
- From Ablation to Neuromodulation Platform: The Evolving Role of Magnetic Resonance-Guided Focused Ultrasound in Functional Neurosurgery.Journal of clinical neurology (Seoul, Korea) · 2026Review
- Translational prospectives for deep brain stimulation and low-intensity focused ultrasound neuromodulation: IFCN Handbook chapter.Clinical neurophysiology practice · 2026Review
- The Impaired Response Inhibition and Salience Attribution Model of Drug Addiction: Recent Neuroimaging Evidence and Future Directions.Annual review of psychology · 2026Review
- Investigating hierarchical control among functional networks disrupted by opioid use disorder using effective connectivity.Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2026Article
- Electrophysiology and Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Cue Craving: Potential Biomarkers for Therapeutic Neuromodulation in Addiction.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2026Review
- Challenges and lessons learned in attempts to develop in vitro models for ultrasound neuromodulation using local field potential measurements in hippocampal tissue.Biophysical journal · 2025Article
- Article
- Acoustic Coupling for Double-Blind Human Low-Intensity Focused Ultrasound Neuromodulation.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Cocaine conditioning promotes persistent inhibition of GABAergic transmission in the mouse ventral hippocampal CA1 region.Neuroscience letters · 2025Article
- Low-Intensity Focused Ultrasound for Opioid Use Disorder: Early Evidence and Open Questions.Biological psychiatry · 2025Article
- Emerging neuromodulation treatments for opioid and stimulant use disorders.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
17 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundOpioid use disorder remains a critical health care challenge because current therapeutic strategies have limitations that result in high recurrence and deaths. We evaluated the safety and feasibility of focused ultrasound (FUS) neuromodulation to reduce substance cravings and use in severe opioid and co-occurring substance use disorders.
methodsThis prospective, open-label, single-arm study enrolled 8 participants with severe, primary opioid use disorder with co-occurring substance use. Participants received a 20-minute session of low-intensity FUS (220 kHz) neuromodulation targeting the bilateral nucleus accumbens (NAc) with follow-up for 90 days. Outcome measures included safety, tolerability, feasibility, and effects of FUS neuromodulation by assessment of adverse events, substance craving, substance use (self-report, urine toxicology), mood, neurological examinations, and anatomical and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) at 1, 7, 30, 60, and 90 days post-FUS.
resultsNo serious device-related adverse events or imaging abnormalities were observed. Following FUS, participants demonstrated immediate (p < .002) and sustained (p < .0001; mean 91%) reductions in cue-induced opioid craving, with median ratings on a scale from 0 to 10 as follows: 6.9 (pre-FUS) versus 0.6 (90-day post-FUS). Craving reductions were similar for other illicit substances (e.g., methamphetamine [p < .002], cocaine [p < .02]). Decreases in opioid and co-occurring substance use were confirmed by urine toxicology. Seven participants remained abstinent at 30 days; 5 participants remained abstinent throughout 90 days post-FUS. Resting-state fMRI demonstrated decreased connectivity from the NAc to reward and cognitive regions post-FUS.
conclusionsNAc FUS neuromodulation is safe and a potential adjunctive treatment for reducing drug cravings and use in individuals with severe opioid and co-occurring substance use disorders. Larger, sham-controlled, randomized studies are warranted.
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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.