A Chip Has Been Implanted In A Man’s Brain To Help Him Overcome Opioid Addiction

The West Virginia UniversityRockefeller Neuroscience Institute and WVU Medicine, announced the launch of a first-in-the-U.S. clinical trial using deep brain stimulation for patients suffering from treatment-resistant opioid use disorder.

Funded through a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the clinical trial is led by principal investigator, Dr. Ali Rezai, executive chair of the RNI, and a multidisciplinary team of neurosurgical, psychiatric, neuroscience, and other experts.

The team successfully implanted a Medtronic DBS device in the addiction and reward center of the brain. The trial’s first participant is a 33-year-old man, who has struggled with substance use disorder, specifically excessive opioid and benzodiazepine use, for more than a decade with multiple overdoses and relapses.

West Virginia has the highest age-adjusted rate of drug overdose deaths involving opioids. In 2017, drug overdose deaths involving opioids in West Virginia occurred at a rate of 49.6 deaths per 100,000 persons, according to NIDA.

Read more at WVU Today