Rocky Bayou student Mori McCain highlights NET device to end addiction
NICEVILLE — This past summer, Mori and Michael McCain found themselves in what most would not refer to as a typical father-daughter conversation.
Mori, a 10th-grader at Rocky Bayou Christian School, and her dad/“roadie” were chatting about the Neuro Electro Therapy (NET) 901 device, which uses transcranial stimulation to eliminate addiction withdrawal symptoms and cravings.
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Michael heard about the device on “The Eric Metaxas Radio Show,” when Metaxas interviewed Norman Stone, the producer of the “The Final Fix.” The documentary follows four addicted volunteers through an open-label study using the NET 901 Device. All end up addiction-free after seven days and remain that way more than two years later.
One thought came to Michael’s mind: Mori’s Rocky Bayou science fair project.
“When I heard these two guys talking, I said, ‘Mori, this could be a real good project because this could benefit humanity,’ ” Michael said. “‘This could be something you could feel really good about.’”
“I picked the project because I later found out how much of a crisis it is in the United States,” Mori said. “Forty-seven thousand people died in 2018 alone. The goal of this project is to promote the device so they can get it FDA-approved, because they’re having a hard time getting it approved.”
Mori, 16, presented the project, “Opioid Addiction: What Is the Final Fix?” in the library Nov. 6. Two days later it was announced over the intercom that she had won first place in the biological sciences category and overall.
She will prepare a 3-minute video for the East Panhandle Regional Science & Engineering Fair held virtually in February.
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It wasn’t Mori’s first science fair success. In the eighth grade, she won second place in the state science fair with a project about aeroponics. She hopes to someday pursue a career in the medical field.
Mori started her project in June, something characteristic of “motivated students,” said Ray Allen, Mori’s chemistry teacher. She researched the device first, discovering it originated in the 1970s with Scottish surgeon Meg Patterson, who called it electro acupuncture, Mori said. Patterson was known for treating celebrities such as Eric Clapton, she said.
The NET device involves putting electrodes behind both ears and stimulating both sides of the brain to suppress cravings for drugs, she said. Because Mori could not test the device, she made her project informational.
“My initial question was which is more effective to end opioid addiction: replacement opioids,” Mori said. “That’s the most common and cheapest way to get people off drugs, but you’re still using an opioid; it’s just a lot safer. We compared it to the NET device.”
Mori compared a NET trial with an opioid replacement trial in withdrawal success and the average duration of physical withdrawal symptoms. All the people in the NET trial are drug-free today, and the only side effect is a minor skin irritation on the ear from the electrode, Mori said.
Mori exchanged many emails and video conferenced Owen Fielding, the operations manager for NET Recovery Corp., the company that makes the device today.
“He helped me with a lot of the information from the trial,” Mori said. “He was excited that there was interest in it. He said, ‘What information do you need?’ He needed to know all the guidelines for the science fair project.”
Allen had never heard of the device. He loves learning new things from his students at the science fair, he said.
“It was one of the most exciting projects this year,” Allen said. “This thing has amazing potential, and it’s like, ‘Why isn’t it being used? Why is it not better known?’ ”
Allen recruits judges from the community. They were equally supportive of the project.
“One of the criteria is, ‘How important is it to mankind?’ ” Allen said. “And there’s nothing more important than this thing.”
Michael was proud of his daughter’s success.
“It was good to see her rewarded for all her hard work, starting early back in the summer,” Michael said. “There’s a lot of other things kids could be doing.”
But Mori’s ultimate goal isn’t accolades. The device is pending approval for commercial use in both the United Kingdom and the U.S., and Mori wants her project to make an impact on that happening.
“I just want to get the name as far as it can go, because that would be great if I could help speed up the process of the FDA approval,” Mori said.
In 2017, the FDA permitted an Indiana company to market a similar device called the Bridge Neurostimulation System. The authorization was based on a clinical study of 73 patients undergoing opioid withdrawal.
The study found that all patients saw their withdrawal systems reduced within 30 minutes of using the device. Still, some health officials raised concerns that the device was not tested in randomized controlled trials, a standard for determining whether a treatment is truly effective or merely provides a placebo effect to patients.
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