A man in China implanted electrodes in his brain to treat his addiction to methamphetamine. How could this work?

A man in China who has spent years fighting a methamphetamine addiction has received a device in his brain to treat this addiction, according to news reports.

The man is participating in one of the first clinical trials in the world on the use of deep brain stimulation (DBS) to treat substance abuse, according to The Independent. More than six months after the surgery at Shanghai Ruijin Hospital, he is not taking any medicine.

But what is DBS and why do some researchers go there to try to treat addiction? [10 Things You Didn’t Know About the Brain]

DBS involves surgically implanting a pacemaker-type device in a specific area of ​​the brain, said Dr. Ashesh Mehta, director of Epilepsy Surgery at Northwell Health's Comprehensive Epilepsy Center in Great Neck, New York. State of New York. An electrical current flows through the unit, causing small electrical shocks in the targeted area.

In theory, "in drug-addicted patients, the electrical current targets the region of the brain that controls cravings, thus reducing the need for drugs," said Mehta, who was not involved in the Chinese case. This area of ​​the brain is called the nucleus accumbens.

DBS has been approved in the United States for treating neurological conditions such as epilepsy and Parkinson's disease; However, its use for treating drug addiction has been somewhat controversial. Although animal studies have shown promising results, critics of DBS treatment for addiction are reluctant to advocate its use in humans, according to The Independent. They argue that treatment does not take into account the interaction of biological, social and psychological factors that constitute addictive behavior.

Nevertheless, this approach has attracted the attention of US experts who desperately seek new effective treatments for addiction treatment after the failure of others. More than 70,000 Americans have died of drug overdoses in 2017, including illegal drugs and prescription opioids, which is twice as much as in 2007, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

In an effort to reduce the number of drug-related deaths, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a DBS trial on opioid addiction at the Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute of West Virginia University, reported The Independent. . The trial, led by Dr. Ali Rezai, director of the institute, should begin as early as June.

According to Clinicaltrials.gov, a database of the US National Institutes of Health, eight clinical trials of DBS on addiction have been registered worldwide. Six are located in China, one in France and one in Germany.

In light of the growing drug epidemic in the United States, Mehta agreed that researchers needed to explore new methods of treating addiction. DBS, however, is just one part of a comprehensive treatment plan, he said. "As with epilepsy, SCP is a component of substance abuse treatment," Mehta told Live Science, adding that it was a surgical supplement to both behavioral and medical therapies.

As with any surgery, there are risks, and the DBS is no exception, he added. "The main risks are bleeding, infections and strokes," said Mehta, "but the overall risk is lower in a young, otherwise healthy person."

Originally published on Science live.