The New Lobotomy? - The Tyee

Controversial treatment Eights months ago, surgeons drilled two holes into the skull of a wide-awake Vancouver man and inserted spaghetti-sized electrical wires down through the two sides of his frontal lobes. They left behind a remote control brain pacemaker, which regularly shocks his brain with three volts of electricity, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, powered by a battery pack that sits on his neck. The device is meant to treat his severe depression. It’s part of a controversial clinical trial of a procedure called deep brain stimulation (DBS) that’s jointly run by UBC and VGH, and be…