(8 May 2019) DESPERATION HAS BROUGHT MR. YAN TO THIS HOSPITAL IN SHANGHAI.
HE'S HOPING BRAIN SURGERY WILL CURE HIS ADDICTION TO DRUGS.
MR. YAN ASKED US NOT TO USE HIS FULL NAME OR SHOW HIS FACE BECAUSE HE'S AFRAID OF LOSING HIS JOB.
HE'S THE FIRST PERSON TO UNDERGO DEEP BRAIN STIMULATION, OR DBS, FOR METHAMPHETAMINE ADDICTION IN A CLINICAL TRIAL AT RUIJIN HOSPITAL.
SOUNDBITE (Mandarin) Mr. Yan, patient who underwent DBS for drug addiction:
"I have this deep craving, and as long as I have money, I go use this stuff. Then I feel, in myself, that nothing has meaning. If I live this kind of life, it's really meaningless."
DBS HAS LONG BEEN USED FOR MOVEMENT DISORDERS LIKE PARKINSON'S DISEASE AND IS INCREASINGLY BEING USED TO TREAT PSYCHIATRIC CONDITIONS, LIKE SEVERE CASES OF OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE DISORDER, OR OCD.
THE SURGERY INVOLVES IMPLANTING A DEVICE THAT WORKS LIKE A PACEMAKER, USING ELECTRODES IMPLANTED IN THE BRAIN TO STIMULATE TARGETED AREAS.
SOUNDBITE (Mandarin) Mr. Yan, patient who underwent DBS for drug addiction:
"As I remember, he used the scalpel and he cut here and cut there. Then he took the skin away, got inside and cut again and then smoothed it out."
THERE ARE CURRENTLY EIGHT REGISTERED DBS CLINICAL TRIALS FOR DRUG ADDICTION IN THE WORLD, ACCORDING TO  A US GOVERNMENT DATABASE. SIX ARE IN CHINA.
SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Sun Bomin, Director, Center for Functional Neurosurgery:
"We always made our best to provide the new therapy for those patients who are medically refractory. There's not any effective therapy for them. We want to the DBS will give them hope."
CHINA HAS BEEN CRITICIZED IN THE PAST FOR ITS HANDLING OF DRUG ADDICTION, INCLUDING MANDATORY TREATMENT CENTERS RUN BY THE POLICE, AND USING A CONTROVERSIAL BRAIN SURGERY TO CURB DRUG USE.
CHINESE RESEARCHERS SAY DBS IS LESS RISKY AND IN THEORY REVERSIBLE.
SOUNDBITE Dr. Zhang Chencheng, Center for Functional Neurosurgery: "DBS is somehow equivalent to ablation therapy but is safer."
THE FIRST US CLINICAL TRIAL OF DBS AND OPIOIDS COULD BEGIN IN JUNE.
MEAGHAN CREED HAS BEEN STUDYING DBS ON MICE AND SAYS IT'S A PROMISING OPTION.
SOUNDBITE Meaghan Creed, assistant professor, Washington University in St. Louis:
"Given the crisis that we have with addiction right now that the prospect of using DBS for addiction is important and very timely."
BUT CREED SAYS SURGERY WILL NOT TREAT ADDICTION ON ITS OWN.
SOUNDBITE Meaghan Creed, assistant professor, Washington University in St. Louis:
"I do think that when used in combination with things like cognitive behavioral therapy, other classical treatments for addiction, that it can help patients, it can help them overcome some of that initial craving."
CHINA'S STUDIES SO FAR HAVE OFFERED MIXED RESULTS, INCLUDING A FATAL HEROIN OVERDOSE AFTER DBS.
FOR YAN... HE SAYS SURGERY WAS THE ONLY CHANCE TO GET HIS LIFE BACK.
FIVE MONTHS LATER, HE SAYS HE FEELS STRONGER....
UPSOUND: My self-control is good.
AND IS STILL OFF DRUGS.
ERIKA KINETZ, ASSOCIATED PRESS, SHANGHAI

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