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Title: Deep-Brain Electrical Stimulation May Relieve Symptoms of Intractable Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Presented at AANS

"Deep-Brain Electrical Stimulation May Relieve Symptoms of Intractable Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Presented at AANS"

By W. A. Thomasson Special to DG News CHICAGO -- April 11, 2002 -- A researcher has successfully treated intractable obsessive-compulsive disorder symptoms using electrical stimulation of deep-brain structures. In a poster presented here yesterday at the annual meeting of the American Association of Neurological surgeons, Douglas E. Anderson, MD, of Loyola University, in Maywood, Illinois, described the procedure, in which electrodes were placed stereotactically in the anterior limbs of the internal capsules and stimulation parameters were adjusted periodically. The patient was a 38-year-old woman who had been diagnosed in 1987 with obsessive-compulsive disorder with depressive features. In the ensuing period she had been admitted to the Loyola University psychiatric ward at least 12 times. Her pre-operative score on the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive scale was 36 (maximum = 40). All previous therapy had failed. Dr. Anderson said that stimulation parameters were adjusted at two weeks, six weeks and three months postoperatively. Improvement in psychosocial function has been confirmed by the referring psychiatrist and a second, independent, psychiatrist, as well as by pre- and postoperative evaluation by the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale. Three months following the operation, her score on the Yale-Brown scale had fallen to 7, and 10 months postoperatively it was 1. She has returned to full-time employment, attends social events, and has an expanded range of friends. Although only a single case, this report documents that electrical stimulation using electrodes implanted in the anterior limbs of the internal capsules can benefit selected patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder, Dr. Anderson said. He further pointed out that the procedure is fully reversible, as the electrodes can be removed if they fail to benefit a particular patient.

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