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Remission of Alcohol Dependency Following Deep Brain Stimulation of the Nucleus Accumbens: Valuable Therapeutic Implications?

Overview
Journal J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry
Publisher BMJ Publishing Group
Specialties Neurology
Neurosurgery
Psychiatry
Date 2007 Sep 20
PMID 17878197
Citations 90
Authors
Jens Kuhn
Doris Lenartz
Wolfgang Huff
Sunhee Lee
Athanasios Koulousakis
Joachim Klosterkoetter
Volker Sturm
Affiliations
Soon will be listed here.
Abstract

Chronic consumption of alcohol represents one of the greatest health and socioeconomic problems worldwide. We report on a 54-year-old patient with a severe anxiety disorder and secondary depressive disorder in whom bilateral deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the nucleus accumbens was carried out. Despite the absence of desired improvement in his primary disorder, we observed a remarkable although not primarily intended alleviation of the patient's comorbid alcohol dependency. Our case report demonstrates the extremely effective treatment of alcohol dependency by means of DBS of the nucleus accumbens and may reveal new prospects in overcoming therapy resistance in dependencies in general.

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