Deep brain stimulation of the nucleus accumbens is effective for the treatment of severe alcohol dependence

Introduction: Alcohol dependence is one of the worldwide leading modifiable causes of morbidity and death. The treatment of alcohol dependency rests on pharmacological, psychological and social therapeutic interventions whilst none of these interventions can be considered reliably and permanently effective.1 As a conceptual new approach high-frequency deep brain stimulation (DBS) is experimentally used in the context of addiction because of its possibly modulating effects on the nucleus accumbens (NAc), the key structure in the reward system.2 Method: Case report: We report on a 69-year old married Caucasian mal…