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China's Controversial Brain Surgery To Cure Drug Addiction

Posted by timothy on from the than-a-bottle-in-front-of-me dept.

kkleiner writes "A small handful of doctors in China are using a highly controversial procedure to rid people of drug addiction by destroying a part of patients' brains. The procedure involves drilling small holes into the skulls of patients and inserting long electrodes that destroy a part of the brain called the nucleus accumbens. This area, often referred to as the "pleasure center" of the brain, is the major nucleus of the brain's reward circuit. Is it worth being cured of addiction if, losing the addiction, we also lose part of who we are?" The practice has been officially banned, but apparently continues nonetheless.

11 of 385 comments (clear)

  1. 21st Century Lobotomies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They worked out so well last time.

  2. Is it worth? by XiaoMing · · Score: 5, Funny

    is it worth being cured of addiction if, losing the addiction, we also lose part of who we are? Is it worth being cured of addiction if, losing the addiction, we also lose part of who we are?

    is it worth reading slashdot, if, reading it means reading poorly edited summaries like these? Is it worth reading slashdot, if, reading it means reading poorly edited summaries like these?

    1. Re:Is it worth? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Jesus here. Stop telling me what I already know.

  3. Lost a Friend Yesterday by BoRegardless · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Couldn't control his drug issues. His birth mother was addicted.

    Now he is gone. Would he have been better served to still be here w/o some "reward center". I don't know. I will never know.

    1. Re:Lost a Friend Yesterday by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Would he have wanted to live if he never found any joy in living ever again?

    2. Re:Lost a Friend Yesterday by LordLimecat · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Losing a friend because he made bad decisions is tragic, and cause for grief. Having a friend lobotomized because the government has decided youre making bad decisions is horrifying, and cause for outrage.

      There is a big difference between making bad decisions freely, and having the government decide that you are no longer fit to make your own decisions.

    3. Re:Lost a Friend Yesterday by AdamHaun · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Mostly I was talking about the ACs, but let's talk about you. What BoRegardless said was:

      Now [my drug-addicted friend] is gone. Would he have been better served to still be here w/o some "reward center". I don't know. I will never know.

      This is not a statement of support. It is a statement of confused grief.

      After misinterpreting this as fervent support, you proceeded to speculate wildly about BoRegardless's motivations and his late friend's addiction, levy criticism based on that speculation, and recommend that he read a story about being trapped in a hellish existence where death is the only escape.

      In response to a person who just said that his friend had died. Yesterday.

      The article is talking about a surgery that is performed only in China, only for research purposes, and only with worldwide condemnation. The only debate outside of China is whether the results of that research should be published in respectable journals.

      Your comment did not address that debate. It will have zero effect on what happens in China. The only thing it does is attack and belittle someone who just lost a friend. In your zeal to put on a show of righteousness on the internet, you are stepping all over the real human being who is (metaphorically) right in front of you.

      To say that this lacks compassion would be an understatement.

      --
      Visit the
  4. I wouldn't mind losing part of who I am by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    When it comes to a real problem a change in personality wouldn't be such a problem, but losing dopamine forever? Never to feel positive emptions again ever? I don't care who you are that's not worth it. Surely the reason people get addicted to begin with is they don't have enough dopamine and serotonin in their life for whatever reason.

  5. Thanks, Minitrue! by Goaway · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The practice has been officially banned, but apparently continues nonetheless.

    Of course, we're not going to let that stop us from calling it "China's", as if it were some kind of official and mandatory procedure.

  6. ethics, schmethics. it's just outsourcing! by retchdog · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Dr. John Adler, professor emeritus of neurosurgery at Stanford University, collaborated with the Chinese researchers on the publication and is listed as a co-author. While he does not advocate the surgery and did not perform it, he believes it can provide valuable information about how the nucleus accumbens works, and how best to attempt to manipulate it. “I do think it’s worth learning from,” he says. ” As far as I’m concerned, ablation of the nucleus accumbens makes no sense for anyone. There’s a very high complication rate. [But] 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,” he says. cite.

    --
    "They were pure niggers." – Noam Chomsky
  7. Re:I'll auto-Godwin myself by WWJohnBrowningDo · · Score: 5, Informative

    The first transorbital lobotomy was performed in 1946, one year after Hilter's death.

    Lobotomies stopped being routine in the 70's.