A Personalized Brain Implant Curbed a Woman’s OCD

October 31, 2023

(Wired) – “Every decision I made was based on my OCD. It was always in the back of my mind,” Pearson says. In her twenties, she developed epilepsy. After suffering a serious seizure that caused her to lose consciousness, her doctors considered treating her with deep brain stimulation, or DBS. The procedure involves surgically implanting a device that delivers electrical pulses to a specific brain region. Scientists think DBS works by resetting abnormal brain circuits, similar to what a pacemaker does for the heart.

DBS has been used for the past three decades to control tremors in people with Parkinson’s disease, and researchers are currently exploring it to restore upper body movement to stroke survivors and as a treatment for some psychiatric disorders. The US Food and Drug Administration permits its use for OCD as a last resort. (Read More)