Study Explores Use of DBS to Treat Severe Opioid Use Disorder
Allegheny Health Network (AHN) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, announced recently that a multidisciplinary team of physicians has successfully implanted a deep brain stimulation (DBS) device in the brain of a patient with treatment-resistant opioid use disorder (OUD) in December at Allegheny General Hospital.
The patient is now receiving ongoing therapy as part of a clinical study approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Prior to entering the study, the patient, a 28-year-old male from New York, had experienced nearly 15 opioid overdoses despite multiple medical and rehabilitative treatments.
For the study, a bilateral electrode leading to the nucleus accumbens—the brain’s addiction and reward center—was implanted in the patient, along with a pacemaker-like device near the patient’s collarbone. The goal of the DBS treatment is to reduce severe opioid cravings that lead to potential relapse and overdoses by delivering continuous electrical pulses. Developed in the 1980s, DBS has been used to treat movement disorders, such as Parkinson disease and essential tremors.
“DBS in itself is not a new concept, but we are proud to be one of the few centers in the country where this innovative technology is being studied for new indications, including obesity and addiction,” AHN Chief Medical Officer Donald Whiting, MD, said in a news release. Dr Whiting also serves as chair of the AHN Neuroscience Institute.
The AHN study, which was approved by the AHN Institutional Review Board as well as the FDA, is being funded by Abbott. The ongoing trial has a capacity of 3 patients. To qualify for the trial, patients must have opioids, such as heroin and fentanyl, as their primary drug of addiction and must have engaged in multiple addiction treatment attempts. After having the DBS device implemented, trial participants will be monitored by a multidisciplinary team for 2 years.
Lead principal investigator Nestor D. Tomycz, an AHN neurosurgeon, told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that AHN hopes to enroll 2 additional study candidates within the next 6 months.
“We can’t promise this will be a cure or effective treatment, but based on the work that’s been done across the world so far for patients with addiction, and based on animal studies, we do think that this is a promising treatment for severe addiction,” Dr Tomycz said.
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