For people living with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder, delusions can persist even when medication is taken faithfully, leaving a gap that few tools have yet managed to close. In a small study from NYU Langone Health, ten such patients lay through a brief, noninvasive session in which gentle sound waves were aimed at a deep brain region, and their fixed beliefs eased modestly for as long as a week. The finding is a tentative step rather than a cure, a reminder that the mind's stubborn convictions may one day answer to precise physical touch, though much more evidence will be needed
Focused Ultrasound Eases Delusions in Schizophrenia in Small Blinded Study
A single 10-minute treatment led to a small reduction in delusions
Mark
So what actually happened in this study?
Mimi
Ten people with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder, whose symptoms persisted despite medication, got a 10-minute ultrasound session aimed at the globus pallidus internus. A week apart, they also got a sham session.
Mark
And the sham matters because?
Mimi
Neither the participants nor the people rating their symptoms knew which was which. That's what lets the comparison mean something.
Luke
Fair, but let's be clear on size. Ten people. Delusion scores fell 1.2 points on average versus a 0.4 rise after sham. We aren't told how large that is clinically, or how much it varied between individuals.
Mark
The effect lasted up to a week. Is that a lot?
Mimi
It's notable for one 10-minute treatment. But it's still a short window.
Luke
Right, and "up to a week" is a ceiling, not a typical figure. Nothing here says what happens with repeated sessions.
Mark
What about safety?
Mimi
Tiredness, headaches and brief symptom increases, all described as mild and short-lived.
Luke
In ten people, over a short follow-up. That tells us little about rarer or longer-term effects.
Mark
What comes next?
Mimi
Researchers plan to use advanced brain scans to adjust the sound strength for each person and confirm it reaches the right spot, then larger studies.
The Pulse
- Ten patients whose delusions had resisted medication became the testing ground for a new, surgery-free approach.
- Each person received two sessions a week apart, one real and one pretend, with neither patient nor rater knowing which was which.
- Sound waves, switched on and off every 30 seconds, were guided by MRI toward the globus pallidus internus.
- Delusion scores dropped 1.2 points after real treatment while rising 0.4 after sham, a difference that held for up to a week.
- Mild side effects such as tiredness, headaches and brief symptom flares accompanied the procedure.
- Researchers now plan MRI-tailored sound strengths and larger, longer trials to test whether the benefit is safe and lasting.
For people living with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder, delusions can persist even when medication is taken faithfully, leaving a gap that few tools have yet managed to close. In a small study from NYU Langone Health, ten such patients lay through a brief, noninvasive session in which gentle sound waves were aimed at a deep brain region, and their fixed beliefs eased modestly for as long as a week. The finding is a tentative step rather than a cure, a reminder that the mind's stubborn convictions may one day answer to precise physical touch, though much more evidence will be needed before that promise can be trusted.
Ten people with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder came to a quiet room at NYU Langone Health carrying a difficult truth: even with daily medication, their delusions still held firm. Each lay down for a ten-minute session in which focused sound waves were aimed at a deep structure in the brain, the globus pallidus internus, with MRI scans guiding the way. A week later, they returned for a second session that looked the same but sent no energy into their heads. Neither the participants nor the clinicians scoring their symptoms knew which was which.
The technique, transcranial ultrasound stimulation, works without surgery, using gentle sound to nudge activity in specific regions. Before and after each visit, the team measured delusions, hallucinations, thinking and memory, and they watched closely for side effects. The sound was pulsed on and off every half minute throughout the treatment.
The results were modest, but they pointed in one direction. After the real session, delusion scores fell by an average of 1.2 points, and the relief lasted up to a week. After the sham session, scores crept up by 0.4 points. The side effects, including tiredness, headaches and brief flares of symptoms, were mild and passed quickly.
The researchers are already looking ahead. Future studies will use more advanced brain imaging to tune the strength of the sound to each individual and to confirm that the energy reaches its intended target. The authors are careful to note how small this first group was, and that a single session is not yet a treatment. Only larger, longer studies will show whether this quiet touch of sound can offer lasting help to those whose beliefs have stayed out of reach.
Ten people with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder, all still troubled by symptoms despite taking medication, each lay through a 10-minute session in which sound waves were aimed at a spot deep inside their brains. In a separate session a week apart, they went through a pretend version of the same procedure. Neither they nor the researchers rating their symptoms knew which session was real.
The work comes from researchers at NYU Langone Health and was published in the journal npj Acoustics. The technique is called transcranial ultrasound stimulation. It uses gentle sound waves to change activity in specific brain regions, and it does so without surgery.
The team used MRI scans as a guide to direct the sound toward the globus pallidus internus, a deep brain region. During the 10-minute treatment, the ultrasound was switched on and off every 30 seconds. Before and after each session, the researchers assessed the participants' delusions, hallucinations, thinking and memory, and they also tracked side effects.
The results were modest but consistent in direction. A single real treatment produced a small reduction in delusions that lasted for up to a week. On a scale measuring delusion severity, scores dropped by an average of 1.2 points after the real treatment. After the pretend treatment, which sent no sound waves into the brain, scores rose by an average of 0.4 points.
Side effects were reported and described as mild and short-lived. They included tiredness, headaches and brief increases in symptoms.
The researchers say their next studies will use more advanced brain scans to tailor the strength of the sound waves to each person and to confirm that the energy reaches the intended brain area.
The caution is built into the design. Ten participants is a very small group, and the effect was measured after a single session. Larger studies will be needed to learn whether the approach is safe and effective for more patients over a longer period.
Notable Quotes
Larger studies are needed to find out whether this treatment is safe and effective for more patients over a longer period.— Study reporting, paraphrasing the researchers' caution
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