You have probably seen ultrasound used to look at a baby in the womb or scan an aching knee. Most of us never think of it as a treatment for the brain. For a small group of patients with schizophrenia, that is exactly what researchers in New York just tried.
Researchers at NYU Langone Health tested transcranial focused ultrasound in 10 adults with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. The pilot study was published October 20, 2026 in the journal npj Acoustics.
Each patient received one real 10-minute session and one sham session, delivered a week apart in random order. On a standard clinical scale for delusion severity, scores dropped by an average of 1.2 points after the real session.
After the sham session in the same patients, scores rose by an average of 0.4 points.
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The team reported only mild and short-lived side effects. These included fatigue, headache and brief flare-ups of psychotic symptoms, and they turned up equally in the real and the sham sessions.
The difference between the real and sham sessions lasted up to a week, when the study period ended.
What focused ultrasound actually is
Focused ultrasound sends high-frequency sound waves through the skull to a precise spot deep in the brain. MRI guides the targeting. There is no incision, no implant and no anesthesia.
In some uses the sound waves are strong enough to heat and destroy a tiny patch of tissue. In others they only gently nudge nerve activity, with no lasting damage.
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The high-intensity version is already in US clinics for tremor. According to the Focused Ultrasound Foundation, the FDA has cleared it for essential tremor and for tremor-dominant Parkinson's disease. Later clearances cover other movement symptoms of Parkinson's.
In previously reported cases, two Parkinson's patients walked and ate again after a related ultrasound procedure.
The NYU team used the gentler version. They aimed at the globus pallidus interna, a small structure deep in the brain that belongs to a circuit controlling movement, thought and emotion. That circuit is thought to misfire in schizophrenia, in ways tied to delusions.
What the pilot study showed and what it still cannot answer
The 10 participants all had ongoing symptoms despite drug treatment. Neither the patients nor the researchers knew which of the two sessions was the real one at the time.
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Wei Qi, a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, led the study.
She said their results offer early evidence that a single session of transcranial ultrasound stimulation can safely tune a brain circuit linked to psychosis and lead to a noticeable drop in delusions.
The limits are real. Ten patients is a very small sample, and a 1.2-point drop on a clinical scale is modest. The trial also tested only a single session, in people who were still on their usual antipsychotic drugs.
Donald C. Goff, the senior author on the paper, said further work is needed to see whether targeted ultrasound could one day supplement or even replace standard medicines for schizophrenia.
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Why delusions are such a hard target
Delusions are fixed, false beliefs that a person holds despite clear evidence against them. They are among the symptoms that current antipsychotic drugs often fail to clear completely.
The NYU patients still had ongoing symptoms despite medication, which is why the researchers wanted to test a different kind of tool. Rather than acting on brain chemistry across the whole brain, focused ultrasound aims at a single circuit for a few minutes at a time.
For now, focused ultrasound is not an approved treatment for schizophrenia.
The NYU group calls larger trials the clear next step before the technique could be considered for people with psychosis. Anyone with symptoms of psychosis should talk to a doctor about the treatments available today.
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This article is made and published by Aksel Kryhlmand, who may have used AI in the preparation.