Deep brain stimulation tried for obesity

[n2doc]

Carol Poe was sure she was going to die of obesity. Her blood pressure was going crazy. Two stomach surgeries hadn’t worked. At 280 pounds, the 60-year-old felt she was on a downward slide.

Then Poe heard of an unusual experiment taking place in Pittsburgh, about 60 miles away from her home in Morgantown, W. Va. Neurosurgeons at one of the largest hospitals in the area had received approval from the Food and Drug Administration to see whether deep brain stimulation might work as a treatment for obesity.

Deep brain stimulation involves the surgical implantation of electrodes in a person’s brain; the electrodes then deliver currents of electricity meant to alter the brain’s functioning.

The procedure is well accepted for people with Parkinson’s disease and is being explored for people with severe depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, epilepsy, traumatic brain injury and several other conditions.

With obesity, the target of deep brain stimulation is the hypothalamus, a part of the brain thought to regulate a person’s “set point” for weight and other fundamental functions such as body temperature, explained Dr. Don Whiting, a neurosurgeon at Pittsburgh’s Allegheny General Hospital. Animal experiments suggest there is a “feeding center” and a “satiety center” in the hypothalamus, Whiting noted. When lesions are made in those spots, animals either stop eating or eat without stopping.

With deep brain stimulation, “what we hope we can do is not just go in and make people not feel hungry – we hope we can change the person’s energy set-point, which we think is established at birth,” Whiting said.

more:

http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/triage/2009/04/deep-brain-stimulation-tried-for-obesity.html

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. I wonder if this would help with my bipolar as well?

[napoleon_in_rags]

2. I saw a news report, they used it to treat dystonia

Which used to be a very bad thing. I think they can rewire a lot. But the question is, as always, what are the long term costs? Its such a new treatment its hard to imagine them fiddling with it on cases that aren't threatening a persons life.

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. Well, I don't meet the requirements anyway since I have not had

the stomach surgery. And to be honest I am not sure I would be willing to be a guinea pig for a relatively untested treatment. At least not one involving my brain.

[truedelphi]

4. Yes, some of the different institutes that are researching bipolar have already

Come to some conclusions that it would help.

In fact about three months ago, i mailed off a Newsweek article (Circa)2002) to a friend. The article detailed how the scientists were talking about how this could be a boon for those suffering with bipolar.

I'll see if I made a copy of the article and then get it for you.