Co-Boost: boosting and guiding neuroplasticity by combining ketamine with neurofeedback-assisted learning—towards an individualised and integrated pharmaco-psychotherapy for cocaine addiction: study protocol for a randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blind, parallel-group, single-centre trial
Trials September 25, 2025 Anna Trippel, Ladina P Gubser, Etna Engeli et al. 1 citation
Cocaine is the most frequently used stimulant worldwide, with increasing consumption in Europe. Psychotherapeutic interventions for cocaine use disorder (CUD) show only modest effects, and no pharmacotherapy has been approved. A novel target, glutamatergic neurotransmission, emerged from animal models: after chronic cocaine, glutamate concentrations in the nucleus accumbens are reduced, with overflow during cue-induced cocaine-seeking. This imbalance has also been observed in humans. Neurofeedback training (NFT) studies using real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging (rt-fMRI) show participants with CUD can learn to regulate brain activity in reward areas using reward imagery.