Deep Brain Stimulation Success rate for Parkinson’s disease is excellent. Benjamin Greenberg, MD, PhD, is associate professor of psychiatry and human behavior at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. “Just trying to do that without trying to bring in that rehabilitation means that you are only doing half of the process.”. Most surgeons use microelectrode recording—which involves insertion of a tiny wire that monitors the activity of nerve cells—to more specifically identify the precise brain area that will be stimulated. Another important development for treatment-resistant OCD is deep brain stimulation (DBS). In one patient, the antidepressant effects lasted around eight years, and in another it has lasted for over 10 years so far. Watching doctors switch on the device is miraculous. The Lancet Neurology (2015) 14:693–701. DBS has been used since the mid-1980s to treat movement disorders such as severe tremor or Parkinson’s disease. This is called “Freezing”. These articles are about special topics related to OCD and related disorders. Surgeons cut a hole in the skull that is the size of a five-cent piece then insert a spaghetti-like electrode into a specific region of the brain thought to play a role in the dysfunction. Butler Hospital/Brown University There are also regulatory limitations, with DBS being banned for psychiatric disorders in parts of Australia, such as New South Wales and the Northern Territory. In addition, a study of 70 patients with treatment-resistant OCD, found that deep brain stimulation halved symptoms of depression, anxiety and obsessive compulsive scores 12 months after insertion. The electrical stimulation can affect certain cells and chemicals within the brain. In an open-label study, around half of the patients responded to treatment at the 18 to 24 month  mark. You can turn stimulation on and off with a special remote control that you’ll take home with you. This response rate is comparable to or slightly higher than the response rates for the other neurosurgical options described above (cingulotomy and capsulotomy), but comparisons must be tentative since the numbers of patients treated with DBS are still relatively small. What is the success rate of Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS)? Primary Site Or put more simply: neurons that fire together, wire together. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis on a subset of patients with at least 10 years of follow-up (n = 200) revealed a survival probability of 51% (mean age at death 73 years). The early results were promising, as three of these first four patients experienced benefit. Deep brain stimulation involves implanting electrodes within certain areas of your brain. “The first frontier was movement disorders,” says Professor Matthew Kiernan, co-director of the Brain and Mind Centre at the University of Sydney. He is a Epilepsy specialist & Parkinson's specialist in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. Predictors of second-sided deep brain stimulation for Parkinson's disease. Also: The goal of reducing your symptoms is to improve your quality of life.