Primetime DBS

Last Thursday, ABC’s Primetime broadcast a report about DBS (Deep Brain Stimulation) at the Cleveland Clinic, Ohio. It featured neurosurgeon Ali Rezai and his patient Cindy Warren, who will already be familiar to viewers of the Pittsburgh Channel and readers of The Plain Dealer. Also appearing were Florida neurosurgeon Kelly Foote and his patient “Kelly”.

Emotions Via Remote Control
However, generating emotions in the operating room is not the true test of this medical trial. That comes later, when Cindy and Kelly head to their psychiatrists' offices to have the electrodes turned on in such a way that will, they hope, alleviate some of their symptoms. It means they will need permanent pacemakers to power the signals, too.
Using a handheld device that looks similar to a TV remote, Malone [psychiatrist Donald Malone] adjusts the voltage on Cindy's pacemaker.
"I can actually get to the point where I feel like laughing. I feel kind of giddy, tingly," she said.
Malone said he's aware of the power he holds in his hands. "It's humbling," he said. "And scary."
And, amazingly, it's also a mystery as to why deep-brain stimulation works. But scientists theorize that the electrical currents emanating from the implanted wires scramble the old neural pathways that carried Cindy's depressive thoughts and patterns. Read more...

Well, something at least has not changed much in seventy years of psychosurgery. Egas Moniz theorized in a very similar sort of way.

The Cleveland Clinic used to perform ablative psychosurgery until a patient successfully sued them four years ago:

Failure to obtain informed consent for experimental surgery
Verdict for a woman who suffered brain damage and a brain infection after undergoing brain surgery. She and her husband sued the hospital, alleging battery, fraud, and medical negligence. Among other things, plaintiffs claimed that the treating surgeon had performed a combined cingulotomy and capsulotomy-the latter a procedure that was unconsented to and experimental in nature. Plaintiffs were represented by *Robert F. Linton Jr., *Mark W. Ruf, and Stephen T. Keefe Jr., all of Cleveland, Ohio.
Zimmerman v. Cleveland Clinic Found., Ohio, Cuyahoga County C.C.P., No. 399411, June 12,2002.