A group of researchers from Cambridge and Oxford universities and King's College London are preparing to use deep brain stimulation that could potentially decrease the yearnings of addicts and boost their self-control.

This comes in the backdrop of the recent studies that have shown the impact that deep brain stimulation (DBS) can have on treating a variety of neurological conditions. DBS has already been in use to treat Parkinson's disease, depression, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). It is now being tested as a treatment for alcohol and opioid addiction. The clinical trial Brain Pacer (brain pacer addiction control to end relapse), aims to see whether electrical impulses can in fact help in reducing cravings and improve self-control in people battling with substance dependence.

What is Deep Brain Stimulation?

Deep brain stimulation or DBS involves implanting a small electrode into specific areas of the brain. This then delivers electrical impulses to modulate neural activity. To draw parrallels, you can also think of it as a “pacemaker for the brain.” Just as a pacemaker helps stabilize irregular heart rhythms, DBS aims to normalize abnormal brain rhythms, particularly those linked to addiction. The concept is based on the idea that addiction may be caused by irregular brain patterns that drive cravings and compulsive behaviors. By correcting these patterns with electrical impulses, scientists hope to reduce cravings and promote better decision-making in individuals struggling with substance use disorders.

The Scope of the Trial

The Brain-Pacer trial will involve 12 participants, six alcoholics and six opioid addicts. These individuals will have to meet specific criteria, including a minimum of five years of addiction and at least three relapses. They must also have previously tried conventional treatments, such as medications or psychotherapy, without success. The trial is set to take place at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge and King’s College Hospital in London.

The key to this trial is the precision with which the brain implants will be placed. The electrodes will be inserted into areas of the brain responsible for reward, motivation, and decision-making. These regions are deeply involved in the craving and compulsion that drive addiction. Once the electrodes are in place, they will be connected to a pulse generator implanted in the patient’s chest. This generator will deliver the electrical impulses intended to regulate the brain's activity and potentially reduce the cravings that drive addiction.

Potential Benefits and Challenges

The primary goal of the Brain-Pacer trial is to determine whether DBS can help alleviate cravings and boost self-control. Researchers hope that the electrical impulses will help normalize the brain's reward circuits, leading to a reduction in the intense desire to drink alcohol or use opioids. In turn, this could increase a person’s ability to resist the temptation to relapse.

However, the trial also serves a dual purpose. In addition to testing the efficacy of DBS as a treatment for addiction, the researchers aim to gain a deeper understanding of the brain mechanisms that underlie alcohol and opioid cravings. By recording brain activity both with and without the electrical impulses, the team hopes to identify which neural patterns are most closely tied to addictive behavior. This insight could pave the way for more effective treatments in the future, both for addiction and other mental health conditions.

A Step Toward Transformative Treatment

According to Prof. Valerie Voon, the project’s chief investigator, the goal of using DBS to treat addiction is not just to alleviate the immediate symptoms, but to offer long-term solutions. “Most people who are seriously addicted to alcohol or opioids are highly disabled,” she explains. Addiction not only affects the individual but also has a profound impact on their families, jobs, and communities. Overcoming addiction is a difficult and often lifelong struggle, but the hope is that deep brain stimulation could provide a new, life-changing option for those who have struggled with traditional therapies.

While addiction treatment through deep brain stimulation is still in its early stages, the potential benefits are immense. Opioid addiction, in particular, has become a crisis worldwide, with millions of people suffering from dependency on painkillers like heroin and morphine. The rise in fatal drug overdoses, many involving opioids, highlights the urgency of finding effective treatments. The Brain-Pacer trial offers a promising avenue for addressing this crisis, providing a potential lifeline for those who have exhausted other treatment options.

Looking Toward the Future

If successful, deep brain stimulation could represent a major breakthrough in addiction treatment. It offers the possibility of targeted, effective interventions that could change the way we approach addiction recovery. Prof. Keyoumars Ashkan, a leading surgeon in the trial, emphasizes the transformative potential of this technology. “It will be a major leap forward if we can show efficacy in this very difficult disease with a huge burden to the patients and society,” he says.

The Brain-Pacer trial is just the beginning. If it proves successful, DBS could become a critical tool in the fight against addiction, offering hope to millions who have struggled with alcohol and opioid dependence. As research continues, it may not only provide a new method of treatment but also a deeper understanding of the complex brain mechanisms involved in addiction.

We have all have experienced fevers, there are many different beliefs about it in different cultures and multiple ways to treat it, ranging from modern medicine to ancient practices. When one has a fever, their body feels warm and weak, they also do not have energy to do extended movements. As fevers are a range, some being slight to others being signs of dangerous conditions, dealing with them can be tricky. Things like fever dreams, conversations and thoughts are often incoherent. There are things called fever hallucinations as well, but why does this happen?

Fever means your body temperature has gone above what's normal. But what's "normal" can be a bit different for everyone and can change based on how active you are and the time of day. Generally, a fever is when your temperature is higher than 99 degrees Fahrenheit in the early morning or above 100 degrees Fahrenheit at any other time.

Do Fevers Make Us More Irritable?

In a 2013 review published in the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, the researchers found that not only do fevers cause people to feel cold, weak and other bodily sensations, but the participants also expressed emotional changes, vivid dreams/hallucinations.

In one of the interview with a participant from the study, researches noted them experiencing feelings of anxiousness, crabby, angry and frustrated, “Like I said, I think fever is really tied in to how you feel emotionally. Because I know every time I have a fever, I just get snotty, for lack of a better term, because I'm just really agitated.”

“I feel tired. I feel irritable”

How Is Body Heat And Brain Health Connected?

Harvard Heath explains a part of your brain called the hypothalamus acts like a thermostat for your body. When you're healthy, it keeps your body at its usual temperature. A fever happens when the hypothalamus gets set to a higher temperature than normal. This change in the brain's thermostat is usually caused by tiny things in your blood called pyrogens.

According to a 2023 review by Yale School of Medicine heat can change things in the environment, it can also change how our brains work. In a study, researchers found that even small increases in temperature while the brain is active can really change what the brain does, and sometimes these changes can be negative.

Experts from Yale explain that changes in temperature in the brain also affect how our nerve cells (neurons) fire signals. These cells have tiny pumps that give them electrical energy, which they release when the brain is active. The researchers found that if brain cells get heated up too fast, faster than these pumps can adjust, the cells might become more active or less active than usual.

Even tiny temperature changes from brain stimulation can lead to big changes in neuron activity. As neurons get warmer, they can even stop working, and when they cool down again, they can become very easily excited.

Fever Hallucinations and other Psychological Affects

According to an Infections & Chemotherapy 2022 review, fevers can cause febrile convulsions, which is a seizure caused by a fever in young kids. It can also cause confusion, like not understanding where you are, not recognizing your surroundings. It can also cause unstable emotions, conscious and cognitive disturbances like illusions on hallucinations.

These can also be symptoms for things like influenza infections or encephalitis. Like the Yale experts explained even small temperature changes can have such a big impact on brain activity, we need to start paying attention to these small changes. He points out that it's a basic rule of physics that when you send electricity through wires to stimulate the brain, you will create heat, both in the wires and in the brain tissue itself.

Researching more on these matters can help us find better treatments and help doctors change the course of several procedures to help their patients.

Turkey has banned elective caesarean surgeries for childbirth at private hospitals and healthcare centres. "Planned Caesarean sections cannot be performed in a medical centre," said a gazette entry outlining new regulations governing private healthcare institutions in Turkey. It came as the country's president, Tyyip Recep Erdogan, has been pushing hard to have women give natural births, asserting that C Section surgeries promoted Western culture.

The move has triggered massive criticism from the opposition and right-wing organisations. "As if the country had no other problems, male football players are telling women how to give birth," Gokce Gokcen, deputy chair of the main opposition CHP, on X. Meanwhile, many human rights and women's rights organisations have also raised their voices against this new law, calling it out for restricting women's rights and liberty.

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What Is A C-Section Birth?

C-section or caesarean birth is a surgical procedure wherein a baby is delivered through incisions made in mother's abdomen and uterus. The name caesarean comes from the Latin word "caedare" which means "to cut." Interestingly, there are rumours that link the name to Roman emperor Julius Caesar, stating that he was the first person to be born via this procedure. However, there are no records of this.

However, there are many cases where a caesarean section surgery becomes almost necessary. A doctor may order a C-section if:

• Your baby is breech, or the lower part of the body is in the birth canal instead of the head.
• Your baby is in a transverse position, or lying sideways in the birth canal.
• Your baby’s head is unusually large.
• Your baby’s heartbeat is slowing down, or there is a problem with oxygen delivery to your baby.
• You are giving birth to more than one baby. Sometimes one baby will be in an abnormal position, so all of the babies are then born via C-section.
• Your baby has a birth defect that makes vaginal delivery unsafe.
• You have umbilical cord issues.
• You have health conditions that make vaginal delivery unsafe. These include high blood pressure, HIV, open herpes lesions, or heart problems.

What Are The Complications Of Having a C-Section Surgery?

There are many complications that come with this method of delivering a child. They include:

• Reactions to the medicines used during surgery
• Bleeding
• Abnormal separation of the placenta, especially in women with previous cesarean delivery
• Injury to the bladder or bowel
• Infection in the uterus
• Wound infection
• Trouble urinating or a urinary tract infection
• Delayed return of bowel function
• Blood clots

Bottom Line

Despite the potential risks and complications, C-sections are much safer than they once were. With evolution in medical science, doctors are now taking great care to make incisions that will reduce the risk of nicks to the baby and infections to the mother. Meanwhile, the use of anaesthesia, also reduces the pain of the childbirth.

ALSO READ: Dishonesty Is 'More Than A Vice', It Could Make You Sick With

Being dishonest doesn’t come naturally to people, it is a learned virtue, whether out of necessity or pleasure. When kids lie, a lot of it stems from them not wanting to get in trouble, for example, breaking a household item or doing something they were told not to do like running around inside the house. However, when people do learn to tell lies, it can become like a go to tendency for many. It is easier to make something up rather than explaining complex truths.

According to a study published in the Psychological Science 2015, kids start lying around the age of two to three years old. Their habit then progresses rapidly, till the age of 3 and 7.

Not all lies are the same, some are really small and don't hurt anyone, like saying you like someone's new haircut even though you don't. These little white lies often just help keep things smooth and make people feel good. Then there are much bigger lies, like saying someone else did something wrong when they didn't, or lying to people about money. These kinds of lies can cause a lot of damage and have bad consequences for people's lives.

Stress Response of Lying

When we know that being dishonest could really hurt how others see us, the act of lying itself makes our bodies feel stressed. When we tell a lie, things start to happen without us even thinking about it. A 2015 review published in the Current Opinion in Psychology explains that our heart might beat faster, we might start to sweat a little and our mouth can feel really dry. These physical changes are what those old-fashioned lie-detector tests used to try and pick up on.

Some people don't feel as much empathy as others, and they might not have the usual stressed reaction when they lie. The American Psychological Association explains that some people can learn to control their bodies really well and might be able to lie and still pass a lie-detector test. On the other hand, someone who is telling the truth but is just really nervous about being tested might look like they are lying.

Gut-Brain Connection and Extreme Reactions

While it's not common, some people might have a really strong physical reaction to lying, like feeling sick to their stomach or even throwing up a lot. This shows how connected our gut and our brain are. When we feel really anxious, like when we are worried about getting caught in a lie, it can actually make our stomach feel bad. So, for someone who is constantly lying and worried about it, this anxiety could potentially lead to physical sickness.

Living a life where you are often not telling the truth can actually take a toll on your health over time, not just in the moment. Research has suggested that people who lie a lot might have problems like high blood pressure, their heart might beat faster more often, their blood vessels could get tighter, and they might have more stress hormones in their bodies on a regular basis.