New Jolt Of Hope For Bulimics

Implant Sends Electrical Shock To Nerve Connecting Brain To Stomach

(CBS)  Karen Eckstrom had a secret so debilitating that getting into the swing of life was almost impossible.

"It's like an old lover," she says. "It doesn't leave you, you have to leave it."

Chris North is saddled with the same problem.

"It pretty much ruled my life in every respect," says North.

As CBS News Correspondent Lee Cowan reports, both are battling bulimia, an eating disorder characterized by binging on huge amounts of food, then purging.

"A typical binge would be oh, a dozen donuts, a box of macaroni and cheese and a large package of Twizzlers," says North.

Nothing could calm their urges until one researcher found a potential new use for an old device.

"This is a pacemaker, very much like a cardiac pacemaker," says Patricia Faris of the University of Minnesota.

Implanted under the patient's arm, every 5 minutes or so it sends an electrical shock that researchers think re-regulates a key nerve that connects the brain with the stomach.

Of the 10 patients who have had it implanted as part of a clinical trial, every one of them has shown improvement.

But some physicians aren't buying it.

"A handful of cases in which there are claims of improvement is just not convincing one way or another," says Dr. Peter Lurie of Public Citizen.

Researchers admit it's early, but they say the results aren't just hype.

"I think this is the first ray of hope that they can get the illness back under their control," says Faris.

Jennifer Liptak hasn't had an episode in weeks. The only outward sign she's being treated is when the implant goes off, it causes "a little pinch in the throat, and it just causes my voice to vibrate a little bit," she says.

But the most stunning revelation of the study is the fact that this little disc works so well at reducing the symptoms, that it's proof, researchers say, that bulimia isn't just in someone's head, it's a physical disorder.

"It takes away the shame and the embarrassment," says Eckstrom. "This is not something I brought on myself and I can control.

"There is a physiological reason for why I do what I do."

She's not cured, but she is better. If this little disk holds up to the rigors or more research, some predict bulimia patients could be on a whole new road to recovery.