Motion disorder surgery is now helping with OCD

Feb. 24, 2016

People with Obsessive Compulsive Disorders, or OCD, have compulsive thoughts and are driven by excessive habits that may seem impossible to break. In the past, if therapy and medication didn't work, someone suffering from OCD had very few other options.

There is a new surgery that's opening some doors.

It's actually the same surgery that helps with motion disorders, such as Parkinson's Disease. Doctors in Pittsburgh have found that by stimulating the brain, the procedure can also help those with OCD.

For Cathy Fowlkes, everyday activities like keeping a doctor's appointment signal a small victory over the condition that kept her housebound for years. "I wasted about 30 years of my life," said Fowlkes.

She struggled with OCD and feared she was spreading germs to others. "I would sit on the edge of my couch with baby wipes, a container of baby wipes and a can of Lysol, and that was pretty much it," said Fowlkes.

Even when she wanted to leave, obsessive thoughts would nearly paralyze her as she pulled out of the driveway. "I thought I hit somebody, and so then I would have to go back and check to make sure and then I would have to go back again," Fowlkes said.

Years of therapy and medication had little impact.

"She was really kind of at the end of the line," said Dr. Donald Whiting, MD, MS, a Neurosurgeon at the Allegheny Health Network in Pittsburgh.

Neurosurgeons in Pittsburgh decided to try deep brain stimulation surgery, or DBS. "Just like with movement disorders like Parkinson's Disease, there's different circuitries in the brain for psychiatric disorders, psychiatric function," Whiting said.

During DBS surgery, doctors insert electrodes into the brain - attached to cables and an implantable battery. The device delivers a small jolt to areas that aren't firing correctly. For OCD patients, the focus is a small region behind the eye, near the temple.

"For people who have tried everything else with severe OCD it can give them their life back," said Whiting.

"People with OCD really, really suffer," said Fowlkes. "And they just can't snap out of it, or get over it." But at least now, some can live with it.

DBS for OCD is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration under what's called a "humanitarian device exemption." Whiting says the surgery is not for every patient, but can be effective in a select group of people who have failed with therapy and medication.

http://www.abc12.com/news/healthsource/headlines/Motion-disorder-surgery-is-now-helping-with-OCD-370026251.html