Event Abstract Back to Event Deep Brain Stimulation for the Treatment of Addiction Juergen Voges1, 2*, Ulf Müller3, Bernhard Bogerts3 and Hans-Joachim Heinze2, 4 1 Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Department of Stereotactic Neurosurgery, Germany 2 Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology (LIN), Germany 3 Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Department of Psychiatry, Germany 4 Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Department of Neurology, Germany Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is an established method for the treatment of disabling motor symptoms in patients with Parkinson’s disease, dystonia or essential tremor. The reversibility of DBS enables its application also in brain regions supposed to be involved in cognitive processes. There is evidence that malfunction of the brain’s reward system is a crucial step for the development and maintenance of addictive behavior. Neuromodulation of this network using DBS might significantly improve the poor prognosis of addictive patients relapsing after standard therapy. Motivated by an accidental observation we used the nucleus accumbens (NAc)/ventral striatum (VS), which has a central position in the dopaminergic reward system as target for the off-label use of DBS in 5 alcohol addictive patients. The patients responded to bilateral, chronic, high-frequency DBS (average follow-up: 50 months) with significant and ongoing improvement of craving. Two patients remained completely abstinent longer than four years. Electrical stimulation was tolerated without permanent side effects. According to preliminary data from electrophysiological recordings when patients performed neuropsychological tasks neuromodulation of the NAc/VS probably counterbalances the effect of drug related stimuli triggering in addictive patients involuntarily drug-seeking behavior. Momentarily prospective randomized studies are recruiting patients for NAc-DBS to treat either opoid addiction (Cologne, Germany) or severe alcohol addiction ((i) Guodong Gao, China; (ii) Magdeburg, Germany, (iii) multicentric study, Germany (participating centers: Magdeburg, Cologne, Heidelberg/Mannheim), or to prevent opiate relapses (Guodong Gao, China). Acknowledgements The work presented is in part funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) Project-numbers HE1531/11-1 and SFB 779 Keywords: addication, deep brain stimulation (DBS), Reward, stereotacty, nucleus accumbens (NAcc) Conference: Belgian Brain Council 2014 MODULATING THE BRAIN: FACTS, FICTION, FUTURE, Ghent, Belgium, 4 Oct - 4 Oct, 2014. Presentation Type: Oral Presentation Topic: Clinical Neuroscience Citation: Voges J, Müller U, Bogerts B and Heinze H (2014). Deep Brain Stimulation for the Treatment of Addiction. Conference Abstract: Belgian Brain Council 2014 MODULATING THE BRAIN: FACTS, FICTION, FUTURE. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2014.214.00009 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 29 Apr 2014; Published Online: 25 Jun 2014. * Correspondence: Prof. Juergen Voges, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Department of Stereotactic Neurosurgery, Magdeburg, Germany, yannic@uni-muenster.de Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Juergen Voges Ulf Müller Bernhard Bogerts Hans-Joachim Heinze Google Juergen Voges Ulf Müller Bernhard Bogerts Hans-Joachim Heinze Google Scholar Juergen Voges Ulf Müller Bernhard Bogerts Hans-Joachim Heinze PubMed Juergen Voges Ulf Müller Bernhard Bogerts Hans-Joachim Heinze Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.