Listen: Device Is Said To Ease Opioid Withdrawal, But Does The Evidence Support It?
The Bridge looks something like a hearing aid or a futuristic earring, and its makers claim that the device mitigates the misery of withdrawal sickness from opioids. With a small electrical pulse, it creates a 鈥渂ridge鈥� that may get people with addiction through flu-like withdrawal symptoms and on to medicines that can control cravings once opioids are cleared from a patient鈥檚 system.
But there鈥檚 a problem. Scientific evidence doesn鈥檛 yet show the Bridge works.
Side Effects Public Media reporter Jake Harper spoke to NPR鈥檚 Rachel Martin about his and how it has been marketed to politicians and treatment centers in Indiana and elsewhere without sufficient proof.