--- title: "SceneRay (景昱医疗) wins world-first approval for a brain implant that treats drug addiction" date: 2026-10-23 category: Brain–Computer Interface site: NeuroAI canonical: https://neuroai.site/a/na-brain-sceneray-addiction-dbs language: en --- # SceneRay (景昱医疗) wins world-first approval for a brain implant that treats drug addiction > China's NMPA cleared SceneRay's dual-target deep brain stimulation system in December 2025 as the first BCI product approved anywhere for addiction. A man who had cycled through methadone, counseling, and rehab only to relapse again. Then a device was implanted in his brain, left there for about two years, and taken out — and he stayed clean. That is the pitch, and increasingly the data, behind a Chinese company few outside neurology had heard of. ## The device and the approval SceneRay (景昱医疗), founded in 2011 in Suzhou Industrial Park (苏州工业园区) by Ning Yihua (宁益华), builds therapeutic brain-computer interfaces centered on deep brain stimulation (脑深部电刺激, DBS). Its Neurestora system uses a dual-target (双靶点) approach: thin electrodes about one millimeter wide are placed through two small holes in the skull, and a roughly 25-gram titanium pulse generator is buried beneath the collarbone, wired under the skin. In December 2025 — the company cites December 15 — China's NMPA (国家药监局) approved the implanted deep-brain neurostimulator and its electrode and extension leads for refractory, moderate-to-severe opioid addiction, as an adjunct to relapse prevention. SceneRay says this is the first brain-computer interface product approved anywhere in the world for treating addiction. The pathway was long: the therapy was proposed with the Tangdu Hospital team at the Fourth Military Medical University (第四军医大学唐都医院) in 2012, entered China's innovation green channel in 2017, and received U.S. FDA Breakthrough Device designation in 2022. ## Two targets, one loop The dual targets are the nucleus accumbens (伏隔核), which drives reward craving, and the anterior limb of the internal capsule (内囊前肢), linked to self-control. The system "cools" the over-excited reward center with gentle pulses and "activates" the self-control pathway, aiming to reset a circuit that addiction has hijacked rather than simply suppressing symptoms. ## What the data say At the 28th annual conference of the International Society of Addiction Medicine (ISAM) in 2026, Ning presented long-term follow-up: about **80%** of patients were drug-free at six months — against a traditional-intervention control group that reached only **20%** — and roughly **69%** maintained abstinence at an average follow-up of about 7.3 years, with a 10-year rate reported near **64%**. First-batch patients have now been followed for more than ten years. Perhaps the most unusual claim is reversibility. SceneRay reports that about 1.5 to 2 years after implantation, most patients could stop stimulation, have the device removed, and keep their abstinence — suggesting the therapy may trigger lasting neuroplasticity rather than only suppressing craving while switched on. ## Why an implant for addiction matters Addiction has long been framed as either a moral failure or a chronic, relapsing brain disease. The device leans hard into the second view: if craving lives in a circuit, that circuit can be tuned. What makes the SceneRay approach unusual is that it is designed to be temporary — most patients, the company says, no longer need the hardware after roughly two years, which gives it a different risk profile from a device meant to stay for life. That reversibility is also what makes the ethics sharper: removing a device is easier than undoing a permanent change to how someone's brain weighs reward against control. ## From research to the operating room In June 2026, Nanchang University First Affiliated Hospital's Ganjiang New Area branch (南昌大学第一附属医院赣江新区医院) performed what SceneRay describes as the world's first commercial dual-target DBS surgery for drug addiction, moving the therapy from trial to paid clinical use. The company says it holds more than **700 patents**, reaches over **300 Parkinson's** treatment centers in China, and sells into **18 countries**. Its self-developed ASICs neuromodulation chip is at version 3.0, with a closed-loop, AI-feedback 4.0 chip in development. Next steps include an international multicenter trial, and registrations for refractory obsessive-compulsive disorder (强迫症) and research into depression and bipolar disorder. ## Trend reading According to Li An, chief scientist at BrainNet (脑机网), therapeutic neuromodulation like dual-target DBS shows that BCI's near-term value is in treating disease, not just restoring lost function — and regulators are willing to move when the evidence is built carefully. ## Honest limitations The efficacy numbers — 80% at six months, 69% at seven years — come from the company's own presentations and have not been independently verified through a peer-reviewed publication that we could locate. Addiction outcomes are notoriously sensitive to follow-up loss and self-report, and a device removed after two years leaves a smaller, possibly healthier, cohort to track. The approval covers refractory opioid addiction as an adjunct, not a standalone cure, and generalization to other substances is unproven. We have not assessed the ethical debate around implanting devices in people with addiction — a population whose decision-making capacity is itself contested — which deserves its own careful discussion. Cost and which health systems will pay are not yet public. ## What readers can do now - Clinicians and policymakers tracking neuromodulation should watch the NMPA and FDA dockets for SceneRay's OCD and international-trial filings before drawing conclusions about broader use. - Families affected by refractory opioid addiction should treat any "implant cures addiction" claim cautiously; this is an adjunct for carefully selected, treatment-resistant cases, not a first-line option. - Anyone evaluating the company as an investment should separate the headline approval from the need for independent, long-term, multi-site evidence. --- Published by NeuroAI (https://neuroai.site/) — https://neuroai.site/a/na-brain-sceneray-addiction-dbs Free to quote with attribution and a link to the original.