Focused Ultrasound Trial Offers Noninvasive Path to Treat Addiction and Brain Disorders
West Virginia University researchers are testing focused ultrasound to target deep brain regions without surgery, offering a potential treatment for addiction and Alzheimer's disease.
The report features Erin McNulty, a 45-year-old woman with a years-long methamphetamine addiction. Her mother, Linda, saw a 60 Minutes segment in early 2024 about the procedure and immediately thought of her daughter. Despite the trial being more than 600 miles away, Linda resolved to get Erin to West Virginia, but first she had to find her—Erin had been missing for weeks.
Erin's substance use began in high school with alcohol and marijuana, then progressed to heroin. She later switched to methamphetamine after a friend introduced it to her, and Linda said, “Erin was gone.”
The procedure uses focused ultrasound, which can emit dozens of beams through an intact skull and converge on precise brain targets. It takes about 20 minutes, and patients can go home the same day, with no drilling or incision. The neurosurgeon behind it, Ali Rezai, is a pioneer in deep brain stimulation, having performed more than 3,000 such surgeries. He moved to West Virginia despite colleagues warning he was “committing academic suicide,” seeing an opportunity at the epicenter of the U.S. addiction crisis.
Nearly 45 million Americans meet criteria for a substance use disorder, and there were nearly 70,000 drug overdose deaths in the U.S. in 2025. West Virginia has the highest overdose death rate in the country, more than double the national average.
The concept of using ultrasound to treat brain disorders dates to the 1950s, when brothers William and Francis Fry built a system that focused ultrasound waves to burn tiny lesions in the brains of patients with Parkinson’s disease. That approach required removing part of the skull and was abandoned after the drug levodopa became available. Modern focused ultrasound, however, can penetrate the intact skull.
Rezai and his team have been testing the technique on people with Alzheimer’s disease and addiction at West Virginia University. The report from Wired describes the technology as a potential breakthrough, but notes Erin’s mother was still searching for her daughter when the story was written.