For about the last decade, Jazmin Camchong, PhD, has been laser-focused on developing a cost-effective, noninvasive brain treatment that supports recovery in people who struggle with alcohol use disorder (AUD).

“What I’m doing is training brain networks that help people recovering from AUD remain abstinent,” explains Camchong, an assistant professor in the University of Minnesota Medical School’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.

Her first clinical research study showed promising results. Those who underwent the active brain training session were three times less likely to relapse than the control group.

Here’s how it works: A person in early recovery wears a “cap” that delivers transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS)—something most people don’t even feel—to the head, stimulating the prefrontal cortex of the brain. At the same time, they engage in brain “exercises,” computer programs akin to video games that are designed to strengthen the cognitive domains that support abstinence. The tDCS works by boosting the brain’s capacity for change.

“Now we want to see if additional training can strengthen the brain even more, extending abstinence further,” Camchong says.

She also is testing the intervention in people who have been diagnosed with opioid use disorder (OUD) because, according to Camchong, chronic substance abuse, whether alcohol or opioids, is associated with reduced activity in the decision-making center of the brain. She’s also hoping to follow up on whether the stronger intervention effects found in women, versus men, is replicable.

While the funding she received from the National Institutes of Health to conduct the study ended last year, generous support from the Isora Wells Foundation and another anonymous donor, as well as the U’s Medical Discovery Team on Addiction, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and Grant-in-Aid bridge fund, has enabled Camchong to continue her research.

Considering that, in 2022, more than 54 million Americans needed treatment for substance use disorders, the availability of an intervention like Camchong’s could have a staggeringly powerful impact.

“The ultimate goal is to refine a scalable, cost-effective intervention that people with AUD or OUD can do in their own homes,” she says.