Aiden Chung

A Review of Brain Stimulation as an Alternative Method of Treating OCD

Started Jan. 26, 2024

Abstract or project description

The exact causes of many psychiatric conditions are not fully understood by the scientific community today, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Obsessions and compulsions, the symptoms associated with OCD, hinder people from even carrying out simple tasks and living their daily lives without trouble. To alleviate this issue, serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SRI) and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) have become used as the most common treatments for any patient with OCD. However, since every patient responds differently to therapeutics, some find themselves unresponsive to both SRIs and CBT. This means that if their OCD symptoms are disrupting their daily lives, they have to find an equally, if not more, effective alternative option for treating their disorder, which is where brain stimulation comes in. Brain stimulation, the techniques and therapies aimed at modulating brain activity, has been used for various psychiatric-related disorders for a while now; however, it has just been recently explored, roughly over the past two decades, for its potential of being therapeutic for OCD. This paper will explore some of the significant brain stimulation techniques that have been experimented with for treating OCD to ultimately address the question of their effectiveness as an alternative therapeutic for patients who are unresponsive to SRIs and CBT. It will also discuss some of the pitfalls associated with this form of treatment, what scientists can do to advance understanding in this relatively new field, and how that understanding can potentially lead to the creation of more effective brain stimulation techniques and an improved treatment experience for both patients and administrators.