Deep brain stimulation for alcohol use disorder recovery

Brain stimulation, a neuro–surgical procedure intended to directly influence brain activity, shows promise as a new treatment for alcohol use disorder. A pilot study investigated whether electrical stimulation to brain areas implicated in addiction can help with substance use disorder recovery.
The study included 6 adults with severe alcohol use disorder. Each participant underwent a surgery to place electrodes to provide repeated electrical stimulation to the nucleus accumbens, a central structure in the brain’s reward pathway.
The study found that self-reported alcohol consumption decreased across the 12-month study period with moderate to large effect sizes, as did other clinical outcome measures associated with thoughts about alcohol use and alcohol use disorder symptoms. Additional clinical outcome measures including depression and anxiety symptoms, also showed improvements, albeit to a smaller extent than alcohol related outcomes. In addition, functional brain changes consistent with recovery were observed over time.
Source: Davidson, B., Giacobbe, P., George, T. P., Nestor, S. M., Rabin, J. S., Goubran, M., … & Lipsman, N. (2022). Deep brain stimulation of the nucleus accumbens in the treatment of severe alcohol use disorder: a phase I pilot trial. Molecular Psychiatry, 27(10), 3992-4000.