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Compulsive urge
Test subjects in a clinical trial for a medical device intended to combat drug addiction in China have experienced troublesome side effects, including the compulsive urge to gamble or have sex.
patients underwent deep brain stimulation
China’s state-run daily The Beijing News cited an investigation last week into tests conducted between 2021 and 2022 whereby Chinese patients underwent deep brain stimulation (DBS) as part of a nationwide clinical trial to treat opioid addiction.
The Beijing News reported, however, that of the 60 test subjects, eight have experienced side effects they described as “intolerable.”
The paper cited case studies including one man who began gambling compulsively, and another who was charged with sexual misconduct.
Wired for trouble
According to reports in Chinese media on Monday, doctors implanted electrodes into the test subjects’ nucleus accumbens, an area of the brain linked to addiction, pleasure, and motivation. The electrodes plugged into what Sixth Tone called a “brain pacemaker” device doctors put in the chests of the 60 subjects.
SceneRay, the Chinese medical manufacturer responsible for the neuromodulation device, claimed that electrical stimulation it generated could lessen drug dependence.
On some patients, however, the gizmo caused some unwanted behavioral changes, including in a long-time heroin user identified by the pseudonym Zhang Dayou.
The activated device instead caused Zhang to gamble compulsively, stacking up debts of about 200,000 yuan ($28,000). He was also admitted to psychiatric hospitals multiple times, and, after using the device for a year, he started using drugs again.
Zhang said that when the doctors switched off the implant, at his request, he fell to the ground, adding: “I couldn’t endure it being turned off any more than it being turned on.”
Only then did I feel alive again.”
“I begged them to switch it back on. Only then did I feel alive again,” he added. Zhang reportedly considered suing SceneRay but was declined by three lawyers who said proving “a causal link” between the device and the test subject’s behavioral changes was too difficult.
Side effects galore
Other adverse reactions reported by the trial subjects included delays in reaction time, mania, anxiety, and heightened sexual urges including pornography obsession.
One subject prosecuted for sexual misconduct tried to argue the device made him do it, but the court found no definitive medical evidence establishing causality.
SceneRay has stated that China’s National Medical Products Administration okayed its neural stimulation system in 2017 and that the brain pacemaker trial had passed the required ethical review.
According to Sixth Tone, as of January 15, 11 trial subjects have had their devices switched off.
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