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New help for schizophrenia may be on the horizon.
A groundbreaking treatment could offer new hope to people struggling with the chronic and severe mental disorder — and it only requires 10 minutes of gentle ultrasound.
Scientists at NYU Langone Health have discovered that directing focused waves deep into the brain may help delusions in patients whose symptoms persist despite taking psychiatric drugs.
The experimental technique, called transcranial ultrasound stimulation, uses sound waves to target a tiny region deep inside the brain called the globus pallidus interna — which helps regulate movement, thinking and emotions, and can be difficult to reach without invasive procedures.
In the study of a total of 10 men and women with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder, researchers discovered that a single 10-minute treatment produced a marked reduction in delusions — false beliefs the individual believes are real.
After the experimental treatment, the patients’ delusion scores dropped an average of 1.2 points on a 7-point clinical scale.
The number may seem small, but when the same patients received a fake treatment, their scores had no change at all.
“Our results offer early evidence that a single session of transcranial ultrasound stimulation can safely ‘tune’ a brain circuit linked to psychosis and lead to a noticeable drop in delusions,” said lead researcher Wei Qi, a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at NYU Grossman School of Medicine.
Side effects, including headaches, fatigue and temporary increases in psychotic symptoms, were mild and short-lived.
The findings were published Oct. 20 in the journal npj Acoustics.