A ''thought-provoking'' talk on therapeutic stimulation of the brain has highlighted the wider benefits of strengthening academic neurosurgery in Dunedin, Prof John McMillan says.
Belgian neurosurgeon Prof Dirk De Ridder took up a Dunedin Hospital post in February as head of neurosurgery.
He also leads the new University of Otago academic neurosurgery research unit, the first of its kind in the country.
Prof De Ridder this week spoke about ''stimulating the brain as a panacea for mental disorder'' in the latest in a series of seminars run by the university Bioethics Centre.
Prof De Ridder and two other neurosurgeons were appointed in Dunedin after an expert panel concluded in late 2010 that neurosurgery should be retained and strengthened in Dunedin.
In his talk at the university campus, Prof Dr Ridder asked if brain stimulation as a ''panacea for mental disorder'' was ''hubris or stupidity''.
He said the part of the brain's frontal lobe known as the anterior cingulate cortex was one of the most frequently studied brain areas. Its anatomy was well-known but its function remained ''enigmatic''.
It was implicated in several roles, including motor control, emotion, cognition, and motivation.
Today, this part of the brain was ''mainly targeted for neurosurgical interventions used for depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, pain and addiction''.
There was ''growing use of deep brain stimulation [DBS]'' to treat mental disorders.
This was a promising trend, given the ''limited side effects and complex functional interactions'' associated with DBS.
During his talk and an interview, Prof De Ridder said brain stimulation was not a ''panacea''.
In most cases, more traditional therapies, including drug treatment, were used to counter mental disorders involving depression and addiction issues.
But in some countries, including the UK and Belgium, deep brain stimulation was being used in a small number of patients whose condition had proved ''intractable''.
Prof McMillan, an Otago graduate who is director of the centre, said Prof De Ridder's talk had been rich and ''thought-provoking''.
