Medical Breakthroughs: Ultrasound device treating chronic pain
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Anna Hansen loves to watch her seedlings grow, but chronic pain forced her to move her garden inside.
“I grow houseplants since I couldn't garden anymore as much,” Hansen said.
Hansen has suffered from endometriosis since the age of 15, and spent years on opioids. But still, the pain persisted.
“These people, like with chronic pain or depression, they're just caught in some sort of loop of brain activity that's pathological,” University of Utah biomedical engineers Tom Riis said.
Riss, and fellow biomedical engineer Jan Kubanek, developed a diadem device that uses ultrasound to target areas deep inside the brain associated with chronic pain and depression
“For the first time, we can treat or at least alleviate the symptoms of many of these people,” Kubanek said.
After mapping the brain with an MRI, diadem then uses 252 beams of sound waves to target areas as small as a peanut.
In the chronic pain trial, 75% of participants experienced meaningful reduction immediately following treatment. For depression, 58% were in remission after one session. One patient remained in remission for over 44 days.
Hansen says she felt immediate relief, and became pain-free within a week.
Researchers believe this ultrasound device will not only help treat chronic pain and depression, but also PTSD and addiction. These researchers are working to speed up the approval of ultrasound therapy by pursuing a dual strategy with the FDA to make the device available and affordable.
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