Method and apparatus for drug free neurostimulation

• US 4,865,048 A
• Filed: 12/31/1987
• Issued: 09/12/1989
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/1987
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Future Medical Products Incorporated Hauppaugue County of Suffolk New York
• Original Assignee: Future Medical Products Incorporated Hauppaugue County of Suffolk New York
• Inventors: Eckerson, Harold D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hindenburg, Max
• Assistant Examiner(s): GETZOW, SCOTT M
• Application Number:
  US07/139,967
• Time in Patent Office: 621 Days
• Field of Search: 128/380, 128/419 S, 128/791, 128/421, 128/422, 128/423, 128/802, 600/26
• US Class Current: 607/45
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/36021 for treatment of pain
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/36025 for treating a mental or cerebral condition
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/36034 specified by the stimulation parameters

Abstract

A medical method and apparatus consisting of a belt worn battery operated waveform generator is provided to give patients suffering from drug or alcohol withdrawal relief from severe physical symptoms associated with the initial abstinence from the drug to which they are addicted. The instant invention in principal is an advanced and more sophisticated form of electro acupuncture which rather than delivering some arbitrary electric current delivers a non-invasive and very specific electromagnetic waveform to the patient'"'"'s mastoid processes behind the ear using two electrodes attached to the waveform generator. After approximately forty minutes the symptoms associated with the acute drug or alcohol withdrawal are either significantly reduced or are completely eliminated. In use, the device is typically worn by the patient during an initial three to five day abstinence period and the patient may alter the intensity of stimulation and duration of stimulation. Importantly, during stimulation the patient feels no discomfort, is totally mobile, and, since the electrodes do not pierce the skin, risk of infection or transmission of blood born infectious diseases is impossible. In addition to reducing the physical symptoms of withdrawal the method also decreases the total time of clinical and sub-clinical withdrawal state that is associated with initial abstinence from drug dependence as compared to standard therapies such as methadone substitution.

Claims

1. A method of relieving a patient'"'"'s suffering due to narcotic and alcohol withdrawal, which comprises:

a. applying a train of electrical pulses to the patient'"'"'s mastoid processes, said electrical pulses comprised of square waves and spikes being applied to each of said mastoid processes simultaneously, said square waves and spikes being applied to each of said mastoid processes with opposite polarity, said square waves electrical pulses having a pulse width of one millisecond and an amplitude, at the source, of 20 volts and lower and a pulse repetition rate of 100 Hertz, said electrical spikes have an amplitude, at the source, of seventy volts with a polarity opposite to said square wave puleses wherein a spike pulse follows immediately upon the conclusion of each of said square wave pulses; and

b. controlling the waveform and frequency of said pulses.

2. A method of relieving a patient'"'"'s suffering due to narcotic and alcohol withdrawal, as recited in claim 1, wherein said train of electrical pulses is alternately turned on and off with a duty cycle of eighty-five percent.

3. A drug free neurostimulator, which comprises:

a. electrodes for applying a train of electrical pulses to the mastoid processes of a patient, said train of electrical pulses comprises individual pulses with an amplitude of 20 volts and a pulse width of one millisecond, followed immediately by a voltage spike of opposite polarity with an amplitude of 70 volts, wherein said pulses have a pulse repetition rate of 100 Hertz, with both voltage magnitudes measured at the source;

b. an electrode harness being in electrical communication with said electrodes and carrying said train of electrical pulses to said electrodes; and

c. means for generating a train of electrical pulses carried by said electrode harness to said electrodes so that by the application of said electrical pulses to said mastoid processes, a patient'"'"'s suffering due to narcotic and alcohol withdrawal is relieved.

4. A drug free neurostimulator, as recited in claim 3, wherein said train of electrical pulses is alternately turned on and off with a duty cycle of eighty-five percent.

5. A drug free neurostimulator, as recited in claim 3, wherein said means for generating a train of electrical pulses carried by said electrode harness to said electrodes comprises a crystal-controlled oscillator and divider to generate positive going pulses with a pulse width of one millisecond and a pulse repetition rate of 100 Hertz, a cycling-pulse generator to generate a square wave with a pulse width of 0.7 seconds, and a waveform network whose inputs are:

said positive going pulses and said square wave; and

whose output is a pulse train comprising;

pulses with a pulse width of one millisecond, and an amplitude of 20 volts, followed immediately by a spike of opposite polarity with an amplitude of 70 volts;

wherein said pulse train is alternately turned on and off with a duty cycle of eighty-five percent.

6. A drug free neurostimulator, as recited in claim 10, wherein said waveform network comprises a transistor pair wherein positive clock pulses are coupled to the base input of a first stage, said square wave is coupled via a resistor-capacitor network to the collector of said first stage, and the output of a second stage is transformer coupled to said electrode harness, such that both waveform network inputs present a high impedance to reduce waveform distortion, while the output of the final stage is presented to said electrode harness.

7. A drug free neurostimulator, as recited in claim 6 further comprising a potentiometer connected between the output of said waveform network and said electrodes, wherein said potentiometer is used to vary the intensity of stimulation of said patient'"'"'s mastoid processes.