Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2026 Jan 14;21(1):18.
doi: 10.1186/s13722-025-00644-0.

Treatment of alcohol use disorder via magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound ablation surgery

Fang Wang #  1   2 , Halimureti Paerhati #  1   3 , Zhengyu Lin  1 , Shuangbao Liu  3 , Bomin Sun  1 , Dianyou Li  4
Affiliations

Treatment of alcohol use disorder via magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound ablation surgery

Fang Wang et al. Addict Sci Clin Pract. .

Abstract

Background: Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a problematic pattern of drinking that can cause significant impairment or distress. Magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS) is a novel noninvasive technique permitting incision-less ablative treatment, which may be effective for AUD.

Case Presentation: We present the case of a 54-year-old man diagnosed with AUD for 30 years. After bilateral nucleus accumbens (NAc) MRgFUS, his craving for alcohol decreased markedly from 6 to 0, and he remained abstinent throughout the follow-up (12 months). Moreover, psychiatric and neuropsychological assessments showed improvements in depression, anxiety, sleep, and quality of life. Besides, he did not have any serious adverse effects during the whole follow-up period.

Conclusions: This case report suggests the feasibility and potential of NAc ablation via MRgFUS in treating severe AUD. Subsequent multi-sample double-blind controlled trials need to be further studied. The effect of MRgFUS on the use disorders of other substances also requires further research.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13722-025-00644-0.

Keywords: Addiction; Alcohol use disorder; Case report; Magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound; Neuromodulation; Nucleus accumbens.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: All procedures followed the Declaration of Helsinki and were approved by the Ethics Committee of Shanghai International Medical Center (Shanghai, China). Written informed consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this case report and any accompanying images. Consent for publication: Written informed consent was obtained from the participant. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Lesion location and clinical outcome following bilateral nucleus accumbens MRgFUS ablation. (A) the size of the bilateral NAc lesion after MRgFUS. White arrows point to the lead NAc lesion area. T2WI, T2-weighted image. (B) longitudinal changes in clinical outcome measures. The line graph depicts scores from baseline through the 12-month follow-up for key clinical scales: visual analog Scale (vas) for craving, 17-item Hamilton depression rating Scale (HAMD-17), 14-item Hamilton anxiety rating Scale (HAMA-14), Beck depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), Beck anxiety Inventory (BAI), and Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI). Lower scores on all scales indicate improvement. The sustained reduction in vas to zero correlates with complete abstinence, while parallel improvements in mood and sleep scales suggest broader therapeutic benefits. M, month
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
The MRgFUS lesion-based functional connectivity (FC) (A), whole brain FC correlation coefficient R-matrix (B), and structural connectivity (C). The 4S156 atlas was used for cortical and subcortical parcellation. The MRgFUS lesion (red round) was segmented based on the T2-weighted image of the 1-month follow-up. For visualization purposes, only parcellations (blue rounds) having a Pearson’s correlation coefficient > 0.1 with the lesion were shown (b). (c) The Pearson correlation coefficient (r) Was computed for each pair of brain parcellations. The resulting R-matrix was then transformed using Fisher’s z-transformation before visualization. Each edge’s r value was compared against the normative connectome derived from the GSP1000 dataset using the Crawford and Howell single-case t-test. Multiple comparisons were corrected using the false discovery rate (FDR) method. (D) The MRgFUS lesion was segmented based on the T2-weighted image of the 1-month follow-up. The MGH-USC HCP normative connectome was used for structural connectivity mapping
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Schuckit MA. Remarkable increases in alcohol use disorders. JAMA Psychiatry. 2017;74(9):869–70. 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2017.1981. - DOI - PubMed
    1. World Health Organization. Global status report on alcohol and health and treatment of substance use disorders. 2024. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240096745.
    1. Huang Y, Wang Y, Wang H, Liu Z, Yu X, Yan J, et al. Prevalence of mental disorders in China: a cross-sectional epidemiological study. Lancet Psychiatry. 2019;6(3):211–24. 10.1016/s2215-0366(18)30511-x. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Harel M, Perini I, Kämpe R, Alyagon U, Shalev H, Besser I, et al. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation in alcohol dependence: a randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled proof-of-concept trial targeting the medial prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortices. Biol Psychiatry. 2022;91(12):1061–69. 10.1016/j.biopsych.2021.11.020. - DOI - PubMed
    1. McCalley DM, Kaur N, Wolf JP, Contreras IE, Book SW, Smith JP, et al. Medial prefrontal cortex theta burst stimulation improves treatment outcomes in alcohol use disorder: a double-blind, sham-controlled neuroimaging study. Biol Psychiatry Global Open Sci. 2023;3(2):301–10. 10.1016/j.bpsgos.2022.03.002. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources