People struggling with binge cravings opting for brain surgery
CITRUS HEIGHTS - Brain surgery being used to end binge cravings?
A pilot study is underway that surgically implants a device in patients' brains to do just that. Citrus Heights' Robyn Baldwin is one of the patients in the first-of-its-kind study.
You might call her a bionic woman. A device implanted in her head is now helping control her appetite.
Baldwin showed the scar on her head, which is now covered by her hair.
"It starts right about the hairline, and then circles around, and then comes down to about here," Baldwin said. "This is the scar line for the primary portion of the apparatus."
A model shows the size and location of the device in Baldwin's head that can sense and disrupt binge cravings by sending signals to areas of the brain that involve pleasure and reward.
"There are wires that connect three pieces, and the wires send a signal to my brain every time that I'm having a craving, and what those signals do, is stop the cravings from happening," Baldwin said.
Doctor Casey Halpern is the senior author of the FDA-approved study on deep brain stimulation for obesity that Baldwin is part of.
"We used craving as a proxy for loss of control, something that most patients that have binge-eating disorder share," Dr. Halpern said.
As part of the study, Baldwin documents all food she eats and also documents data from the device inside her head.
"Every time I have a craving I have a magnet that I have to swipe over the device that actually catches that information," Baldwin said.
"My cravings before were things like ice cream -- I loved ice cream," Baldwin said.
Now her cravings are way down.
"I'm not going for sweets, I'm not going for fatty stuff, things like that. So, it's just made a complete turnaround of the way I'm eating," Baldwin said. "At the beginning, I was logging five to six cravings a day. Now, like this week? Five for the week."
it's a medical "miracle" for a brave patient seeking to control her binge cravings.
"I mean, if it means having it in for the rest of my life, I am willing to do that because it's working for me now," Baldwin said.
Baldwin qualified for the study by passing a number of requirements, including having gone through gastric bypass surgery more than two years ago.