PLYMOUTH, Minn. — For the past few years, Hazelden Betty Ford's Teen and Young Adult Treatment Center in Plymouth has offered a different kind of tool to help those in treatment for opioid addiction.

"Not everybody wants to treat their withdrawal symptoms with opioid replacement like methadone or buprenorphine," said Dr. Alta DeRoo, chief medical officer of the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation. "This would be a non-invasive, non-opioid alternative to that."

At a time when relapse rates exceed 70% among individuals with opioid use disorder, Dr. DeRoo says Hazelden Betty Ford is excited to complete a national, multi-year study of a non-invasive neurostimulation device made by Spark Biomedical. The study, looked at the effectiveness of the device in reducing opioid withdrawal symptoms in both adults and young adults.

"We have 12 cranial nerves that come from the brain, and (the Spark device) is going to stimulate two of those nerves, the trigeminal and the vagus nerve," she said.  

The FDA-approved device uses the stimulation to signal the brain to produce endorphins, which naturally fill opioid receptors. As a result, it reduces the need for external opioids to produce dopamine and reduces withdrawal symptoms.

Kent Erdahl: "Do people wearing the device even really feel it or really notice it?"

Dr. DaRoo: "So, I've actually used the device because it's noninvasive. It doesn't pierce the skin or anything, and when I put it on, I could feel like a little warmth throughout my body. It made me feel comfortable and warm. It's not a heat or anything, but it just made me feel warm when I put it on."

Dr. DeRoo says the study in Plymouth and multiple other sites nationwide is pending publication, but says the data showed that those who wore the device were 5x more likely to complete detox from opioids and stay in treatment for at least 21 days.

Dr. DeRoo: "Which is really incredible."

Kent: "So they're more likely to stay in treatment longer?"

Dr. DeRoo: "Correct, yeah. There was also a decrease in anxiety and depression with the device, which is really incredible because when a lot of people start withdrawing from their medications, dealing with the anxiety and depression is very difficult and sometimes it can result in them leaving treatment."

She says that's why a new tool to help more people stay on track is so promising.