Israeli Trial Detoxes 130-Pill-a-Day Opioid Patient in 20 Minutes With Sound Waves
Updated
Updated · Ynetnews · Jun 23
Israeli Trial Detoxes 130-Pill-a-Day Opioid Patient in 20 Minutes With Sound Waves
1 articles · Updated · Ynetnews · Jun 23
Summary
A man in his 40s at Rambam Health Care Campus tested negative for opioids a week after a 20-minute experimental procedure targeting dependence on roughly 130 painkiller pills a day.
Insightec’s MRI-guided focused ultrasound did not ablate tissue; it modulated nerve activity in the nucleus accumbens, a deep brain region tied to reward, craving and impulse control.
Doctors said craving fell during the treatment itself to 0 out of 10 afterward, while the patient also cut smoking from three packs a day to a few cigarettes and reported no urge to drink alcohol.
Rambam said the case is part of a multicenter trial already running at three U.S. centers, and this patient was the first treated while in active withdrawal.
The hospital framed the approach as a possible answer to opioid addiction, where gradual tapering succeeds in only about 5% of cases and U.S. damage is estimated at $60 billion a year.
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Revolutionizing Opioid Addiction Treatment: Israel’s Noninvasive Focused Ultrasound Breakthrough and Its Global Promise
Overview
A major breakthrough in treating severe opioid addiction has emerged from Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa, Israel, where focused ultrasound technology was used for the first time in a clinical setting for opioid use disorder. This noninvasive procedure targeted a 35-year-old man with a decade-long addiction who had not succeeded with conventional treatments like medication-assisted therapy and psychotherapy. After the focused ultrasound intervention, the patient experienced a significant and immediate reduction in cravings and withdrawal symptoms, highlighting the promise of this innovative approach as a new pathway for individuals struggling with long-term addiction.