VIDEO – IT’S ALL IN YOUR HEAD –
Feb. 15, 2022 – By his 20s, Buckhalter was using heroin, and drugs were all he could think about. By the time Mahoney proposed surgery, Buckhalter was at the end of his rope.
“Immediately, I said, ‘Yes, let’s do it.’ Immediately. Because that’s how desperate I was,” Buckhalter told CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
Soon, Buckhalter became the first patient in a four-person research study testing the safety and feasibility of deep brain stimulation, or DBS, as an addiction treatment. The study is funded by a $750,000 grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Early in the morning of November 1, 2019, Dr. Ali Rezai, a neurosurgeon and Rockefeller’s director, drilled a hole in Buckhalter’s skull. He inserted an electrical probe, a fine piece of wire barely a millimeter wide. Then, with the probe in place, the real work began.
As Buckhalter lay sedated but awake, Rezai showed him a series of images on a monitor: piles of drugs and other pictures meant to induce the cravings and anxiety that had haunted Buckhatler for 17 years. Based on Buckhalter’s responses, Rezai adjusted the probe — a little to the left, now a little higher up — to make sure it sat in the correct position. The team hoped the electrical signal would restore healthy function to damaged brain areas and free Buckhalter from the nonstop craving that held him prisoner.
