Opioid Addiction Can be Controlled Using an In-Brain Chip Technology: First U.S. Clinical Trial

Opioid addiction is a chronic disease that can cause significant health, social, and economic problems. Opioids are a class of drugs that act in the nervous system to produce feelings of pleasure and pain relief. The overdose of opioids negatively affects a person's personal and professional relationships. Some opioids are legally prescribed by healthcare providers to manage severe and chronic pain. According to the US Department of Health & Human Services, there were 47,600 of opioids overdose deaths, and more than130 people died from opioid-related drug overdoses in 2016 and 2017. Researchers in China conducted the first clinical trial of DBS for methamphetamine addiction at Shanghai's Ruijin Hospital in China, along with tests for opioid addicts. The patients are resistant to the various treatments for opioid addiction. Researchers at the West Virginia University Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute (RNI) and West Virginia University Medicine are conducting the first clinical trial in the US that uses deep brain stimulation (DBS) to treat opioid addiction.