Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a procedure in which a ‘brain pacemaker’ is implanted into a patient’s brain. This ‘pacemaker’ then sends electrical impulses to specific areas of the brain in order to alleviate the symptoms of typically treatment-resistant conditions.
Mind Hacks has made a list of the conditions treated using DBS:
- Obesity
- Writer’s cramp
- Tremor
- Depression
- Parkinson’s disease
- Epilepsy
- Huntingdon’s disease
- Addiction
- Self-mutilation
- Cluster headache
- Tourette’s syndrome
- OCD
- Early onset pantothenate kinase-associated neurodegeneration
- Dystonia
- Meige syndrome
- Facial pain
- According to the comments, anorexia nervosa too.
Bluegrass musician Eddie Adcock recently underwent DBS surgery to treat tremors that were preventing him from playing. Via Mind Hacks, the BBC has a video of Adcock playing banjo whilst having surgery as a way to test the surgery’s success. (If you can’t see the embedded video, an ABC News report of the surgery has been uploaded to YouTube.)