Deep brain stimulation can now be used to treat obsessive compulsive disorder, or OCD, which causes uncontrollable worries and anxiety in its sufferers. Medtronic‘s Reclaim deep-brain stimulation (DBS) device received approval from the Food and Drug Administration after a study of 26 patients with severe OCD that showed a 40 percent reduction in symptoms after a year of deep brain stimulation therapy. All the patients had tried and failed other therapies [Chicago Tribune].
The Reclaim device is implanted under the skin of the chest and then connected to four electrodes in the brain. The electrodes deliver steady pulses of electricity that block abnormal brain signals [AP]; the device is controlled by a battery-run component outside the body. Hooman Azmi, a neurosurgeon at Hackensack University Medical Center, said, “This is essentially like a pacemaker for the brain” [WebMD Health News].
While the device has previously been used to treat Parkinson’s Disease and other movement disorders, this is the first time it will be used for a psychiatric condition. It is believed the electrical jolts will be delivered to parts of the brain that control mood and will thus be effective in relieving anxiety. Paul Stypulkowski, Medtronic’s director of research, said, “What deep brain stimulation does is modulate those circuits that we believe are hyperactive in patients with obsessive compulsive disorder” [AP].
While deep brain stimulation therapy looks promising for people who have not found help elsewhere, it has been approved for use only as a last option, when other treatments have been ineffective. While about 2.2 million Americans have the disorder, the new device would only be available to a small group of patients who don’t respond to other treatments, such as antidepressant drugs and therapy. The FDA approved the device under a program reserved for conditions that effect [sic] fewer than 4,000 people each year [AP].
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Image: Flickr / ideonexus
August 5th, 2010 at 2:18 am
I can’t take this pain any longer please find us a cure my brain is shifting to a painful ongoing daily cycle and I can’t control my body reactions. I t’s got a mind of it’s own. If I had to describe it I would take a needle inject the empty needle from the center of the top of the head as deep as i could handle and suck the liquid from the area. It’s stuck inside the brain. Trapped no where to go. Not draining normal. I can’t function anymore it throbs and pounds and desperate for it to go away. please help us. Another fact that has not been spoken about is our pain can be an infection from a tooth not filled or root canal.
I remember my dentist finished the rootcanal and less then 5 min after leacving hisoffice my center of the brain was in trouble. I know the pleasure i wouldl usually get from pulling attached to the same area where he had numbed me up from the left side on top of my mouth in the back area. I forgot the medicne name that he gave me but it sure helped the pain.