Description
For general readers, patients, and practitioners, Talan recounts the evolution of deep brain stimulation from an experimental treatment to a common surgical option. She details what led up to the FDA's approval of the procedure for use with Parkinson's disease and essential tremor, including Irving Cooper's pioneering efforts. She also describes stories of patients and uses of the treatment for depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, Tourette syndrome, pain, epilepsy, and other diseases, as well as risks and ethical issues. Talan, a science writer at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, covered neuroscience for Newsday for over twenty years. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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There are disorders that defy treatment with prescribed pharmaceuticals: a man’s hands shake so hard that he cannot hold anything; a woman is mired in severe inescapable depression. For these patients and others, an alternative is emerging: deep brain stimulation. In this fascinating and timely investigation, well-known science writer Jamie Talan explains a cutting-edge medical development that is surprising and impressing researchers around the world. More than 40,000 people worldwide have undergone deep brain stimulation, which involves implanting electrodes in the brain that are connected to a device similar to a pacemaker. With compelling profiles of patients and an introduction to doctors and scientists who are pioneering the research, Talan describes the ways in which deep brain stimulation has produced promising results in the treatment of diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and dystonia—as well as the ethical issues that have arisen in the course of this research.
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