Targeted Deep Brain Stimulation May Improve Treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
chromas writes:
Targeted deep brain stimulation may improve treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder
A person with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) experiences unwanted thoughts and behaviors, the urge for which they find difficult or impossible to resist. More than 2 percent of people are affected by obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors which severely impair daily activities. A treatment option for severe cases is deep brain stimulation, a technique which is also used in other disorders, such as Parkinson's disease. Deep brain stimulation involves the implantation of tiny electrodes into structures deep inside the brain. After implantation, these electrodes deliver very weak electric currents to help rebalance brain activity. By stimulating different areas of the brain, such as a fiber tract within the internal capsule or the subthalamic nucleus, this technique can help improve clinical symptoms in some cases. Treatment success depends on the accurate placement of electrodes and requires millimeter-level precision. The optimal stimulation target for patients with obsessive-compulsive disorders had not previously been identified.
For the first time, a team of researchers - led by Dr. Andreas Horn of Charite's Department of Neurology with Experimental Neurology - has been able to identify a specific nerve bundle which appears to be the optimal target for stimulation. The researchers studied 50 patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder who received treatment at a number of centers around the world. Using magnetic resonance imaging technology both before and after electrode placement, the researchers were able to visualize surrounding fibre tracts and test to see which of these the electrodes were selectively stimulating.
Journal Reference:
Ningfei Li, Juan Carlos Baldermann, Astrid Kibleur, et al. A unified connectomic target for deep brain stimulation in obsessive-compulsive disorder [open], Nature Communications (DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-16734-3)
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