Title: A novel, safe, effective treatment for opioid use disorder

Abstract

Schiffer has proposed and tested and published his novel hypothesis about the relation between the cerebral hemispheres and psychopathology. His ideas come out of his clinical observations and the split-brain studies and are combined in what he has termed dual-brain psychology (DBP), which posits that one brain hemisphere, left or right, as a trait in an individual is more affected by early complex traumas and he has found in his clinical practice and in two published randomized control trials that activating the healthier hemisphere with unilateral transcranialphotobiomodulation (UtPBM), near infrared mode has been highly successful in treating a range of psychiatric disorders including opioid use disorder. Here we will focus on the latest NIH funded trial in which we sought to treat 39 participants mostly from CraigsList.com who reported significant opioid cravings. 19 participants were treated with an active LED and 20 with a sham, which used the identical device with foil over the LED. The study was conducted and 2 sites, both of which reported similar results. The participants were treated twice a week for 4 weeks with 3 weekly follow-ups. The results as shown in Figure 1. showed that from baseline to the 3rd follow up there was a highly significant better improvement in the active group versus the sham and at the end of treatment and at the 3rd follow-up with an effect size was 1.5. At the McLean site there was also a very significant decrease in opioid use in the active group but not sham. In Schiffer's private practice he combines this UtPBM treatment with psychotherapy based on DBP, but in this control study, participants received only a twice weekly UtPBM treatment or sham. We feel the study show that UtPBM can be used as a stand-alone treatment or in combination with buprenorphine. From private practice, we feel it is greatly augmented when combined with dual-brain psychotherapy and we feel that this randomized control trial supports the novel hypotheses of DBP from which the UtPBM evolved. There were no adverse reactions observed or reported.

Biography

Fredric Schiffer, MD, is a research associate at McLean and an assistant professor of psychiatry, part-time, at Harvard Medical School. He has been studying the relationship between past traumas, cerebral laterality, and depression, anxiety, and addiction and has developed a hypothesis on the physical nature of conscious experience and its relation to the brain and to psychological function. Dr. Schiffer also studies the role that near infrared light directed through the forehead to the brain may play as a treatment for psychological problems, including opioid use disorders. He maintains a private practice of adult psychiatry in Newton, Massachusetts and is the Founder and CEO of MindLight, LLC and the Dual-Brain Psychology Institute.