Rambam Medical Center says it has used a new procedure to free a man in his 40s from severe opioid addiction in about 20 minutes. The hospital announced the case on Tuesday, saying the patient had become heavily dependent on painkillers after an injury and was taking roughly 130 pills a day.
The treatment relies on Israeli company Insightec’s technology, which uses focused sound waves under MRI guidance. Unlike earlier approaches that burned tissue, the current method uses neuromodulation, changing electrical activity in the brain region known as the nucleus accumbens, which is tied to reward and addictive urges. The procedure is noninvasive and does not require heating or cutting brain tissue.
Dr. Lior Lev-Tov, head of functional neurosurgery at Rambam, said the patient’s craving dropped during the procedure itself. One week later, laboratory tests confirmed that he was completely clean. The patient also reported a striking secondary benefit, with cigarette use falling sharply from three packs a day to only a few cigarettes, and with no desire for alcohol.
The treatment was carried out as part of an international multicenter study testing alternatives to traditional detox methods, which currently succeed only about 5% of the time. Rambam specialists said the platform could eventually be adapted for post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, eating disorders, and treatment-resistant depression.
