Brain surgery techniques can help more than 750,000 people in the UK with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).
Researchers in Korea have found that a non-invasive procedure using high-powered ultrasound – while patients are awake – can significantly reduce symptoms of debilitating mental health conditions.
People with OCD suffer from unwanted thoughts and repetitive behaviors, known as compulsions, which are distressing and time-consuming.
Compulsions may include repeated hand washing, counting in a pattern, silently repeating a word or phrase, or arranging objects in a different way.
One in 50 people in the UK will suffer from OCD at some point in their lives, and most cases can be treated with talk therapy and medication.
of NHS It does not recommend brain surgery as a treatment for OCD – but the recommendation has not been updated since 2005.
The surgery, tested over a decade of clinical research, uses beams of ultrasound energy to destroy areas of brain tissue.
Patients remain awake for the procedure and are evaluated before and after each ultrasound beam – side effects are limited to headaches or dizziness during the treatment and are eliminated afterwards.
A non-invasive procedure using ultrasound can help people with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).
People with OCD suffer from unwanted thoughts and repetitive behaviors, known as compulsions, such as frequent hand washing.
The ‘scale-free’ surgery, called magnetic resonance guided focused ultrasound, has been shown to reduce symptoms and has no side effects ten years after it was performed.
The study’s lead researcher, Dr. Jin Woo Chang, from Korea University’s Anam Hospital, said: ‘This technology offers a new lease of life for people who suffer and struggle with severe mental illness.’
The ultrasound procedure is currently used by the NHS to treat essential tremors – a nervous system condition often a symptom of Parkinson’s – as well as uterine fibroids.
According to the researchers, it may also be used in the future to treat other common mental disorders, such as treatment-resistant depression.
