The first implant recipient is Gerod Buckhalter, a 33-year-old man with more than a decade of opioid and benzodiazepine use and a history of relapses and life-threatening overdoses.
“Despite our best efforts using current, evidence-based treatment modalities, there exist a number of patients who simply don’t respond. Some of these patients remain at very high risk for ongoing catastrophic health problems and even death. DBS could prove to be a valuable tool in our fight to keep people alive and well,” said Dr James Berry, interim chair of the West Virginia University Department of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry, in a statement.
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