CHINA: ’HOLE IN HEAD’ SURGERY FOR ADDICTS

[Alfa]

CHINA RESUMES 'HOLE IN HEAD' SURGERY FOR ADDICTS


BEIJING -- China has resumed controversial brain surgery intended to cure drug users of their addiction, less than two years after it was suspended.


It claims that the "hole in the head" operations are now being performed as part of a controlled experiment.


More than 500 of the operations, in which parts of a patient's brain are destroyed using a heated needle, were performed across China between 2000 and the end of last year -- when the health ministry, faced with growing criticism, said their outcome was too uncertain for them to continue.


Side effects included loss of memory, weakened sex drive and extreme mood swings. Critics complained that there had been no proper scientific research into the treatment. The health ministry said the operations would remain suspended until a proper medical evaluation was completed.


Now the leading expert in the field, who has overseen 262 of the operations, has been permitted to resume them.


Dr. Gao Guodong, head of the medical research centre at Xian Tang Du Hospital in the central city of Xian, said his was the sole hospital allowed to start operating again.


Chinese drug addicts and their desperate families had been willing to pay thousands of dollars for the treatment -- pioneered but then banned in Russia -- in the belief that it would cure them.


Patients who have stopped taking drugs for at least 15 days are given local anesthetic in the top of the head before Gao drills a half-inch hole in the top of their skull.


A thin surgical needle is slowly inserted deep into the brain, where it is heated to a temperature of up to 80 degrees C and kept inside for seven days by use of a surgical clamp applied around the head. The needle is removed, destroying -- if all has gone to plan -- that part of the brain linked to addictions and cravings.


The resumption of the operation has been criticized by some of Gao's medical colleagues. Li Yongjie, director of neurosurgery in Xuanwu Hospital in Beijing, gave warning last week that destroying one part of the brain would inevitably cause unpredictable side effects.


"If you turn down the brightness level on a TV set all the channels will go darker," he said. "Just like if you cut off the dependence on drugs in the brain, there is also a strong chance you are cutting off other things, like some control of emotions and sexual desire."

[silkygoo]

actually that would be a feasible alternative, so long as they can isolate the part of the brain that is responsible for addiction. and then isolate it even more and get to the part that is responsible for drug addiction ... and maybe even isolate it right down to flavor. now how'd that be for pinpointing ...ouch

[Nostradamus]

Hole in the head surgery. They used to do that to let the evil spirits out.

[Sickman]

That sounds barbaric, and much like the lobotomies that used to be performed in droves in the U.S., until the practice was completely discredited.

[OneOfMany]

^--- Exactly what my first image was when I read the subject...I guess it can be normal for society to ebb and flow, forward and backward a bit.

As for the surgury itself...Addiction stems from our ability to reason and the fact that pleasurable acts breed more. Stopping either of those parts should stop the addiction, but also cause other possibly life threatening issues.

Imagine not feeling pleasure anymore. Or at least not as much...food wouldn't taste good. Back rubs wouldn't be as nice. Sex wouldn't be interesting.

Or imagine not being able to learn from past actions. That seems terrible too! I can't imagine what kind of logical reasoning they can have behind this type of corrective action.

[Zandorf]

"Side effects included loss of memory, weakened sex drive and extreme mood swings."

funny how the side effects of the operation are also common symptoms of many drug addictions.

[searcher]

Legalized torture

[miffy]

Nostradamus is right - it sounds suspiciously like trepanning. . .

Neurophysiology is still so far from being an exact science - and anyway, no part of the brain can be 'responsible' for addiction. If so, that implies that there's a physiological characteristic similar in all junkies' brains. . . I doubt this. If it's the case, then it suggests ultimately the possibility of genetically de-selecting for addiction at birth. . .

I s’pose it’s possible that there’s a gene somewhere that controls a predisposition to addictive behaviour. . . but who knows? It’s that old nature / nurture debate, innit?

We still don't really know for sure which part of the brain (or the combination of which parts) is 'responsible' for this predisposition to addictive behaviour, if it does actually exist.

It sounds to me as though someone’s done some CAT scans and found that certain areas of the brain respond to heroin, or behave similarly in people with habits. . . and they’ve thought ‘get rid of that bit of brain and get rid of the habit’. . . I s’pose it’s possible that it might even work – but it seems like a lot of guess-work. I’m not at all surprised to hear there’re side-effects. . . it’s lucky the victims of this operation can still tie their shoe-laces. . .

Mind you – it might well work on me – if someone threatened to lobotomise me unless I stopped taking smack, it might well encourage me to stay off!