High-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) and low-intensity focused ultrasound (LIFU) as neurosurgical approaches in psychiatry: A systematic review of current clinical evidence
Alberto Cervantes-Hernández, Ailyn Montúfar Medrano, Humberto Nicolini, Fabián César Piedimonte, Rosalia Zerón-Martínez, Fiacro Jimenez-Ponce · 2026
Read High-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) and low-intensity focused ultrasound (LIFU) as neurosurgical approaches in psychiatry: A systematic review of current clinical evidence by Alberto Cervantes-Hernández, Ailyn Montúfar Medrano, Humberto Nicolini, Fabián César Piedimonte, Rosalia Zerón-Martínez, Fiacro Jimenez-Ponce (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13602696.txt.
Description
Alberto Cervantes-Hernández and co-authors wrote this 2026 systematic review of focused ultrasound as a brain treatment in psychiatry. Sound focused through the skull can ablate tissue at high intensity or nudge circuits reversibly at low intensity. Both routes avoid any incision, which draws interest for stubborn mental illness.
The team searched four databases for clinical studies from 2014 to 2025 in adults with psychiatric disorders. Trials, pilots, and sham-controlled studies with outcome and safety data were kept. High-intensity work centers on ablation, while low-intensity work centers on modulation, so the two are not directly comparable. The review weighs outcomes, targets, side effects, and the weak spots in study design. It maps a young field whose evidence is still thin.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Alberto Cervantes-Hernández, Ailyn Montúfar Medrano, Humberto Nicolini, Fabián César Piedimonte, Rosalia Zerón-Martínez, Fiacro Jimenez-Ponce |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 49 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |