Experimental treatment in Pittsburgh has woman eyeing second chance at life

A 49-year-old woman traveled to Pittsburgh for an experimental treatment she said gave her hope for the first time in years.

Jennifer King is getting brain surgery at Allegheny General Hospital to hopefully control her opioid addiction cravings. The mother of two and healthcare worker drove three hours for a recent appointment with her neurosurgeon, Dr. Nestor Tomycz, to adjust the electrode in her brain. If it works, King said she will finally be back to her old self. 

"I see the me from 13 years ago and before, when my kids were small and I raised them, and I didn't have any of these hang-ups or baggage," King said. 

She struggled for years after a serious car crash left her addicted to opioids. 

"I had a neck injury that was a whiplash that just kept getting injured, reinjured, and it got to the point where I was having these debilitating headaches every day," she said. "In the beginning, when I could get scripts, I was very high functioning. But there came a point when I switched over to the illegal, that wasn't."

After trying many other evidence-based treatments with no luck, she started searching for clinical trials. That's when she stumbled upon Allegheny Health Network's trial to study deep brain stimulation, or DBS. She said she reached out immediately. 

"Didn't go into a lot of detail, but just said I've had multiple failed attempts," King said. "I realize that there is an investment in time and travel, and I'm willing and able to do it."

Tomycz said the trial's first patient, a man from New York, is two years clean. King is the second patient. 

"DBS is a very safe, reversible surgery where we put electrodes into the brain, and we've been doing it for 30 years now for movement disorders," Tomycz said. 

But it's new in the disease of addiction, so doctors needed permission from the Food and Drug Administration. 

"Since the opioid epidemic has been so terrible in the last decade, we did get permission to try it in three patients," Tomycz said. 

King underwent brain surgery in late August and now works with Tomycz to tweak the electrode's strength. 

"It's getting to be a little scary now because it's happening, but I'm really grateful," King said. 

The 1.2-millimeter electrode goes in a spot in the brain where cravings start. 

"We know now where in the brain these cravings seem to start," Tomycz said. "And by placing electrodes into this region, we seem to be able to control cravings with some of the preliminary evidence in animals and human studies. So, it's very new, it's very experimental."

It's an experiment King thinks is worth it if it means getting her old self back.  

"There's just a lot of things that I have not been able to do because of my addiction that I'm looking forward to doing," she said. 

King is the second of three participants allowed in the trial. That means AHN is also actively looking for the final participant.