In new study researchers found that people suffering severe obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) have successfully treated with pacemaker inserted into the brain. This thin electrode into the skull, accurately conveying an electrical current and is capable of easing the symptoms of the upsetting mental condition.
The new technique is known as deep stimulation therapy, which is approved only in US for most severe cases of OCD in which patients are unable to live normal lives due to their condition. The technique has also been used in patients suffering depression and Parkinson’s disease.
OCD can acquire many forms. But, most victims experience repetitive, undesirable and meddling thoughts, impulses and anxieties which they find hard to ignore. This disorder frequently causes sufferers to perform same task time and again. Several sufferers wash their hands repeatedly, other have compulsion to make sure things around the home are ordered in a specific way.
The process engrosses inserting electrodes just over a millimeter thick through drilled holes in the skull and deep into the ventral capsule and ventral striatum of the brain which carry signals thought to be associated with compulsive thoughts. In tests, sufferers who carried the implant for three years had less symptoms of OCD.
According to Dr Benjamin Greenberg, the psychiatrist and founder the technique from Brown University, Rhode Island, these techniques are promising but must be used with a profusion of caution. This is reticent for the small percentage of people who are sternly disabled and have not benefited anywhere near adequately from very aggressive use of conventional treatments.
The patients who sustained to get deep brain stimulation were better for at least eight years. Thousands of patients had the same treatment for Parkinson’s disease. It has also been used for treating the tics of Tourette’s syndrome and in patients with depression.