A new therapy for addiction shuts down the brain's pleasure parts.
A controversial addiction treatment that has been used on people with alcohol or drug problems in China involves altering part of the brain that is responsible for feeling pleasure.
Several reputable scientific medical journals have published articles about the procedure, but many in the medical community see using this treatment for addiction as highly questionable.
Doctor John Adler from Stanford University, who worked with Chinese researchers on a report about the procedure said: “Reporting it doesn’t mean endorsing it. While we should have legitimate ethical concerns about anything like this, it is a bigger travesty to put our heads in the sand and not be willing to publish it.”
The Ministry of Health in China banned the surgery for use on addicts in 2004, but it is still being performed for research or on people suffering from mental illnesses like depression, schizophrenia, or obsessive-compulsive disorder.
The authors of the study claim the treatment helped 47 percent of the 60 patients become drug free, but that more than half of them relapsed and suffered from negative side effects attributed to the surgery.
Do you think this medical treatment should be explored as an option for addiction recovery?
