Scientific and Ethical Issues Related to Deep Brain Stimulation for Disorders of Mood, Behavior and Thought

 

Peter Rabins, M.D., M.P.H. ,(1) Brian S. Appleby, M.D.,(1) Jason Brandt, Ph.D.,(1) Mahlon R. DeLong, M.D.,(2) Laura B. Dunn, M.D.,(3) Loes Gabriëls, M.D., Ph.D., Msc.Eng.,(4) Benjamin D. Greenberg, M.D., Ph.D.,(5) Suzanne N. Haber, Ph.D.,(6) Paul E. Holtzheimer, III, M.D.,(7) Zoltan Mari, M.D.,(8) Helen S. Mayberg, M.D.,(2,7) Evelyn McCann,(9) Sallie P Mink, R.N., B.S.,(1) Steven Rasmussen, M.D., M.M.S.,(5) Thomas E. Schlaepfer, M.D.,(1,10) Dorothy E. Vawter, Ph.D.,(11) Jerrold L. Vitek, M.D., Ph.D.,(12) John Walkup, M.D.,(1) and Debra J. H. Mathews, Ph.D., M.A.(13)

1 Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD
2 Department of Neurology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA
3 Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco, CA
4 University Hospital Gathuisberg of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
5 Warren Alpert Medical School, Brown University, Providence, RI
6 University of Rochester School of Medicine, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY
7 Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University, Atlanta, GA
8 Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
9 Baltimore, MD
10 University Hospital Bonn, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany
11 Minnesota Center for Health Care Ethics, Minneapolis, MN
12 Department of Neurosciences, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH
13 Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD

 

A two-day consensus conference was held in order to examine scientific and ethical issues in the application of deep brain stimulation in the treatment of mood and behavioral disorders such as major depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and Tourette syndrome. The primary objectives of the conference were to 1) establish consensus among participants about the design of future clinical trials of DBS for disorders of mood, behavior and thought and 2) develop standards for the protection of human subjects participating in such studies. Conference participants identified 16 key points for guiding research in this growing field.