In a wild medical first, doctors in Israel believe they may have found a new way to curb addiction and cravings by harnessing the power of sound waves.
According to physicians at Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa, doctors were able to use focused sound wave technology to basically shut off a patient’s opioid addiction. They said that a short 20-minute procedure was able to put an end to a patient’s craving for painkillers. The patient in question had been prescribed opioids for neck pain, and eventually he became addicted to the point that he was taking 130 pills a day. Even though he was no longer in pain, the patient still felt like he needed to take the opioids to feel calm and normal.
To see if they could put an end to this craving for painkillers, researchers targeted a specific area of the patient’s brain known as the nucleus accumbens. The nucleus accumbens is a key component of the brain’s rewards system, as it’s responsible for feelings of pleasure, reinforcement and satisfaction. Researchers believed that by aiming targeted sound waves in this area of the brain that they could activate additional activity or suppress the feelings elicited in this region.
Sound Wave Addiction Treatment
What’s fascinating is that researchers were essentially able to see cravings dropping in real time based on the brain’s electrical activity during the surgery, and the effects lasted long after the short procedure was completed. One week after the operation, the patient tested negative for opioids, self-reported a cravings score of 0 out of 10, and also saw another positive association – a noticeable drop in cigarette use (from three packs a day to just a few cigarettes) and no desire to consume alcohol. The treatment effectively reset the reward center in his brain.
Best of all, the procedure was able to be performed without cutting into the patient, without anesthesia or even the need to have the patient stay overnight in a recovery room. The team was able to modify electrical activity in the nucleus accumbens without cutting, destroying or burning a single cell.
Obviously more studies and tests will need to be conducted, and of course there will need to be continued follow-ups so that patients don’t end up falling back into old habits, but on the surface it appears that sound wave technology could be the key to solving the opioid and addiction crisis. The opioid epidemic costs America an estimated $60 billion and claims the lives of tens of thousands of people each year. Current opioid addiction treatments are expensive and rather ineffective, but sound wave technology has the potential to change all that. Furthermore, researchers believe it could be expanded to treat other conditions like:
- Obsessive compulsive disorder
- Post traumatic stress disorder
- Depression
- Eating disorders
- Alzheimer’s
- Parkinsons
We’ll keep tabs on sound wave technology and its implications for the healthcare world, but it’s encouraging to see modern medicine continue to evolve by working to find ways to better serve patients. We hope future studies continue to show promise!