The Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics
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Brain Surgery for Treating Drug Use
A hospital in Guangdong Province used brain surgery to treat drug use with removing some nucleus in the brain on both sides. This is a research project approved by the Bureau for Health, Guangdong Provincial Government. However, the Bureau ordered the hospital to stop the project later.
The PI and the Director of the Hospital claimed that there is a center in the central nervous system which is located in the periphery system of middle brain and closely related with drug addiction. It is highly probable to relieve addiction if the center is destroyed by surgery. They said there have been about 1000 cases in Russia which underwent this operation. However, there was no published academic paper on it, and it was reported the surgery has already been stopped by the Russian Ministry of Health because of inefficacy and lawsuits.
Although this is a research project, but in this hospital it was treated as routine treatment. There was no informed consent to participate in research from the patients. Instead, patients were required to sign the consent form for admission into the hospital and another form consent to surgery to the effect that ¡°I voluntarily agree to be admitted into the hospital for treating drug addiction by surgery, I has already known the rule for admission into the hospital, and the treatment plan arranged by physicians and nurses, and the risks I would bear, I am willing to be cooperative with them in the treatment.¡±
In the design there was no review of literature, no animal experimentation, no assessment of the surgery, criteria of cure not explicit, no plan for rehabilitation after surgery, no plan for long-term follow-up. What is used to support this surgery is a lot of reports in mass media.
There was no ethical analysis of the ratio of risk/benefit. Only mention the positive effects and success rate. Not notice the long-term impacts after surgery, impacts on cognition, personality and nervous system in particular.
As a rule, patients who participate in a research project should not be required to pay the treatment, however, the hospital asked each patient to pay CNY 20-30,000 (USD 2500-3500). And they performed more than 190 cases of surgery for half year. They did 70 cases even after the Guangdong Bureau ordered them to stop.