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Deep brain stimulation cures anorexia
http://www.ctvnews.ca/w5/deep-brain-...ents-1.2266141
Quote:
Adrianna survived that ordeal, but over the course of the following 14 years she sank into a punishing cycle. She would spend weeks or even months in hospital, often on a feeding tube.
Adrianna Boot
“It got to the point that I loved being stomach-tubed because that meant I didn’t have to eat anymore,” Adrianna told W5 in an interview.
Finally in 2011, during yet another extended hospital stay, Adrianna’s doctor offered her a choice. “Either we’re going to put you in a nursing home where you can take care of all the little sick people and they can make sure that you eat. Or you can try this trial that just came across my desk,” Adrianna recalled.
That trial was a study at Toronto’s University Health Network. The concept behind DBS is relatively simple: doctors use electricity to adjust circuits in the brain.
“There are circuits in the brain that malfunction, that misfire, and it’s possible to adjust their activity, to turn them up or down, very much like you would adjust the volume on your television set,” said Dr. Andres Lozano, the neurosurgeon who is heading up the study.
It just looked like she was going downhill and was not going to ever recover and was going to die in the fairly near future” recalled Woodside. “She was happy to try the treatment because there was no other alternative for her.”
More than happy to try it, Adrianna was desperate to take part. “I begged and pleaded. ‘Please let me do this. I have to do this. I’m not going to live through anything else.’”
Dr. Lozano’s team drilled two holes in her skull, inserted the electrodes into her brain and began adjusting the levels of electricity.
With each adjustment Adrianna was asked questions about her mood, her feelings and her outlook about her body image and food. At first, doctors noted few changes in her responses until at last something unusual occurred.
Pizza cravings
“It’s the weirdest thing,” said Adrianna. “The only reason why I can remember is because it was just that strange.”
The doctors had asked Adrianna if she was experiencing any food craving and much to her surprise she said yes. She wanted a piece of pizza, something she hadn’t eaten in years. In fact, she maintained that just the thought of eating pizza would normally trigger a nervous attack.
It was an encouraging sign that the surgical team had possibly pinpointed the right location in the brain.
The last stage of the surgery involved doctors inserting a permanent, battery operated device similar to a pacemaker in her chest. The DBS pacemaker delivers a constant stream of electricity to the electrodes in her brain and is operated by remote control. It takes the brain several weeks to months to adjust to the changes triggered by the DBS.
More than three years have passed since she underwent the DBS procedure and Adrianna’s life has changed dramatically for the better. She is no longer in and out of hospital. Her weight still fluctuates but it doesn’t drop to the dangerous levels it has in the past.
As far as Adrianna is concerned without the DBS she’d either be back in hospital or dead. “I wouldn’t be standing here today. I got my life back.”
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