PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania — A new study at a Pennsylvania hospital is bringing hope in the fight against opioid addiction.
Doctors at Allegheny Health Network in Pittsburgh are looking for candidates to take part in a new study to treat severe opioid addiction.
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Research using a well-established technique called deep brain stimulation or DBS is underway at AHN. DBS has been used since the 1980s to treat movement disorders like Parkinson’s disease and is now being used for so much more.
“For obesity, some people are starting it for anorexia schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder in veterans,” Dr. Nestor Tomycz, a Neurosurgeon at Allegheny Health Network said.
Dr. Tomycz is the principal investigator for a pilot study that is underway at the AHN to explore DBS for addictions. DBS involves stimulating a specific brain region with electrical pulses with electrodes that are implanted in the brain’s addiction and reward center.
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“Basically, we’re gonna program this deep brain stimulator, which is like a pacemaker device to try to reduce the cravings for opioids,” Tomycz said.
In December, DBS electrodes were implanted in the brain of a 28-year-old man from New York with treatment-resistant opioid addiction. Doctors will be following his progress over the next two years.
“We have approval to do two more patients so far so once again this is a small pilot study, we have to show safety and we’re hoping that we get a couple more patients that are candidates and then obviously the next steps will be multi Center study across the country to study more patients,” Tomycz said.