A ground-breaking experimental treatment undertaken by Toronto doctors may be giving patients suffering from extreme forms of anorexia nervosa their last chance to live a long and healthy life. The debilitating eating disorder causes patients to develop a distorted view of their own bodies and become obsessed with being thin; typically dramatically limiting the amount of food they eat.

The treatment, called deep brain stimulation, or DBS, has been used to treat a number of other conditions but never before anorexia. It requires the patients to be awake during brain surgery. The findings of this innovative study are being revealed as part of this CTV W5 documentary which chronicled the treatment of two patients over the past 18 months.

W5's Dr. Marla Shapiro also investigates the toll that anorexia nervosa takes on patients and their families' lives.