A controversial surgical procedure being studied in China
attempts to cure addiction by destroying parts of the brain’s “pleasure
centers,” Time.com reports. The research is being conducted on alcoholics and people addicted to heroin.
The procedure risks permanently damaging a person’s ability to have longings and feel joy, the article notes.
The Chinese Ministry of Health banned the procedure in 2004. Some
doctors were allowed to continue to perform the operation for research
purposes. In a recent study published in the journal Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery,
researchers called the surgery “a feasible method for alleviating
psychological dependence on opiate drugs.” They note more than half of
the 60 patients in the study had lasting side effects. These included
memory problems and loss of motivation. After five years, 47 percent of
participants were still drug free.
That compares with a 30-40 percent rate of significant recovery with
conventional addiction treatment, the news outlet states. Experts feel
the small increase in success rates with the surgery is not worth the
large risk.
Patients are awake during the procedure, to minimize the risk of
destroying parts of the brain involved in movement, consciousness or
sensation. A surgeon uses heat to destroy cells in small sections of the
part of the brain containing large amounts of brain chemicals called
dopamine and endogenous opioids, which are involved in desire and
pleasure.
Experts say they are opposed to using the procedure to treat
addiction. “To lesion this region that is thought to be involved in all
types of motivation and pleasure risks crippling a human being,” Dr.
Charles O’Brien, head of the Center for Studies of Addiction at the
University of Pennsylvania, told Time.com.
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