Neurofeedback During Naturalistic Stimuli to Reduce Craving in Heroin Addiction

Summary

Support groups are an important component of addiction treatment, where individuals at more stable stages of their recovery help others by sharing personal experiences. This phenomenon suggests that the brain states of individuals further along in their recovery process may be useful in guiding those who are at an earlier stage. In this project, the researchers will test this idea and develop a personalized therapeutic tool based on real-time fMRI neurofeedback, whereby individuals with heroin use disorder (iHUD) early in treatment will learn to modulate their own brain state to more closely align with iHUD who are at later stages of treatment. Specifically, iHUD exhibit heightened reactivity to naturalistic drug cues in brain networks underlying salience attribution, reward processing, executive function and others. This fMRI brain hyperactivity pattern is reduced, concomitant with craving reductions, with about 3 months of inpatient treatment. In this neurofeedback project, iHUD who are beginning treatment will view naturalistic drug cues and receive feedback about how similar their brain activity is to the target recovery pattern, learning to modulate their own brain activity to reduce drug cue reactivity and craving. This study will offer insights into the mechanisms of recovery in addiction, particularly as coordinated across individuals with shared experience and goals. If successful, the neurofeedback-based training may lead to new brain-based and personalized tools for recovery in this devastating disorder.

Conditions

• Opioid Use Disorder
• Substance Use Disorder
• Heroin Use Disorder

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Real-time fMRI Neurofeedback

Real-time feedback reflecting the similarity between participant's brain activity patterns and a predefined target while viewing a drug-related movie.

BEHAVIORAL

Sham Real-time fMRI Neurofeedback

Real-time feedback yoked to another participant and not reflective of the participant's own brain activity.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

  collaborator NIH

• Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Rita Goldstein, PhD · [email protected]

Study Design

Allocation

NON_RANDOMIZED

Purpose

BASIC_SCIENCE

Masking

SINGLE

Model

SEQUENTIAL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

64 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2025-05-20

Primary Completion

2025-08-31

Completion

2025-08-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations