%0 Journal Article
%T Deep brain stimulation for obsessive-compulsive disorder and treatment-resistant depression: systematic review
%A Shaheen E Lakhan
%A Enoch Callaway
%J BMC Research Notes
%D 2010
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1756-0500-3-60
%X Articles were retrieved from MEDLINE via PubMed. Relevant references in retrieved articles were followed up. We included all articles reporting on studies of patients selected for having OCD or TRD. Adequacy of the selected studies was evaluated by the Jadad scale. Evaluation criteria included: number of patients, use of recognized psychiatric rating scales, and use of brain blood flow measurements. Success rates classified as "improved" or "recovered" were recorded. Studies of DBS for movement disorders were included if they reported coincidental relief of depression or reduction in OCD. Most of the studies involved small numbers of subjects so individual studies were reviewed.While the number of cases was small, these were extremely treatment-resistant patients. While not everyone responded, about half the patients did show dramatic improvement. Associated adverse events were generally trivial in younger psychiatric patients but often severe in older movement disorder patients. The procedures differed from study to study, and the numbers of patients was usually too small to do meaningful statistics or make valid inferences as to who will respond to treatment.DBS is considered a promising technique for OCD and TRD. Outstanding questions about patient selection and electrode placement can probably be resolved by (a) larger studies, (b) genetic studies and (c) imaging studies (MRI, fMRI, PET, and tractography).In the middle of the twentieth century, the lesioning of areas of the brain was discovered to be an effective treatment for certain movement disorders. Unfortunately, there were damaging side effects as a result of these lesions. In the 1980s, it was determined that the same effects could be accomplished by stimulating the tissue with electricity. DBS was approved by the FDA as a treatment for movement disorders in 2002. Although still in the research stage, DBS appears to also be a major advance in the treatment of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and treat
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1756-0500/3/60