Deep Brain Stimulation Can Offer Significant Relief to OCD Patients, Research Suggests

A new study recently showed that when traditional treatments become unsuccessful when it comes to helping patients suffering from severe obsessive-compulsive disorder or OCD, an implant zapping the brain with electrical pulses might just be effective.

The research discovered that the remedy called "deep brain stimulation" or DBS can offer substantial relief to as many as two-thirds of the said patients, a UPI report specified.

On average, it can lessen OCD-triggered symptoms by almost half, as indicated in the review. According to the study author, Dr. Sameer Sheth, OCD comprises intrusive and bothersome thoughts that a person cannot silence, and compulsions which are repetitive, ritualistic behaviors carried out to alleviate the anxiety generated by the compulsions.

Sheth, an associate professor of neurosurgery at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, also said that roughly three percent of the global population is believed to be affected.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

For people experiencing severe OCD that cannot be controlled, the symptoms can be "all-consuming," the study author continued explaining.

Examples of OCD comprise repeated handwashing, arranging and ordering, uttering words repeatedly in one's head, and checking and double-checking things.

The associate professor also said that they can prevent the person from being able to perform other important activities of life, and thus be very disabling.

Some people, he continued explaining, cannot leave their room or home due to cleaning rituals that would be essential to reenter or some cannot interact with others because of persistent taboo thoughts.

The good news about this research published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, is that a combination of behavioral treatment and standard antidepressants like serotonin reuptake inhibitors or SRIs help many people.

DBS Settling OCD Symptoms

The bad news though is that approximately 10 to 20 percent do not respond to such treatments, the professor explained.

Describing the technique, he said, like a pacemaker, it comprises a stimulator usually implanted beneath the skin in the upper chest and linked to a wire or electrode. That electrode is embedded in certain regions in the brain, which includes those involved in decision-making and balancing emotions.

Through the restoration of activity in these areas to a more balanced state, DBS is settling OCD symptoms.

Remarkable Depression Relief

The review revealed that, after an average treatment period of around two years, DBS had delivered notable improvements in symptoms in two-thirds of the patients. Averagely, symptoms eased 47 percent, according to researchers.

Remarkable depression relief was also attributed to DBS treatment. The researchers discovered it eliminated the problem in half of the patients for whom it had been quite a concern. The research discovered downsides to DBS treatment, too.

Essentially, approximately one in every five patients encountered at least one severe DBS side effect, the review found.

This can include a heightened risk for suicide attempts, seizures, new OCD symptoms, and stroke linked to DBS itself.

Improved Life for People with OCD

Still, according to a similar ABCA.Live report, Sheth stressed that the upside is difficult to ignore, noting that the symptom relief level associated with DBS, typically enables people to function again at work, at school, and even in relationships.

The expert also explained that, with DBS, patients nearly never get worse, and thus, there is in fact, little risk of DBS for "appropriately selected individuals."

Related information about obsessive-compulsive disorder is shown on Demystifying Medicine McMaster's YouTube video below:

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