Alright folks – real talk.  How often have you heard about medical practices of the past and wondered how civilization could have been so barbaric and calloused to think humans should be subjected to such “treatment”?

There was a time when some doctors advocated for the generalized use of lobotomies to “cure” inconvenient patients.  Dr. Henry Cotton was once an “expert” in his field, practicing unnecessary surgical removal of organs to “cure” insanity. 

Well, here we are now, winding down 2021… which of our new practices will be seen by future generations as insane?  Which will prove to be genius and miraculous?

Consider this article from Stat News about an experimental new procedure that appears to have completely eliminated depression from a test patient by administering minor shocks deep inside the brain.  The test patient, “Sarah”, had serious depression since she was a child.  Researchers from UCSF administered small shocks using a deep brain stimulator devise, specifically designed for the patient, to react to identified biological markers before the waves of depression hit.

Sarah reported marked improvement and the researchers anticipated that the surgically implanted device will have a battery life of about 10 years.  There are plans to expand the study to additional patients as well, but Sarah is reporting a significantly higher quality of life.

If these benefits hold, what are the implications for workers’ compensation?  Since the last round of reforms, we have seen significantly fewer psyche claims, at least in terms of compensable consequences – PD seems to have been the big driver of these claims and now that’s gone for the most part.  But setting aside the exaggerated claims used to leverage more settlement, what about the legitimate psyche claims out there? 

A significant psychiatric injury has the ability to derail a person’s life and, by extension, bring a significant increase in exposure.  Lifetime treatment, in-home care, and, of course, permanent disability can come with a hefty claims expense.  And, aside from the workers’ compensation costs and the effect on the injured worker’s life, the employer is typically out an employee that it would probably like to keep.

This is just one of those new fangled inventions that might ultimately help curb workers’ compensation costs by reducing the impact of psychiatric conditions that are predominantly caused by actual events of employment. 

Then again, dear readers, maybe in a generation or two the consensus would be “why would you think electrocuting the brain from the inside out would be a good idea?”

Straight on to Friday!