It is my understanding if one's physician recommends DBS and one agrees, one in fact receives the "real" thing. If one enters a clinical trial in which the possibilities of a "sham" procedure or DBS being perfromed, one may indeed undergo brain surgery as a "sham" procedure.

all patients MUST be fully cognizant of the possibility a sham procedure will be performed. For someone like charlie, there was never a possibility of a sham procedure because he was not entered into a clinical trial....

I would not want to be on the receiving end of a sham brain surgery procedure--in terms of this type of clinical trial I would be part of the "precipitate"....