Deep Brain Stimulation Failed A Young OCD – Julia Hum made her first visit to a state mental institution in Massachusetts five years ago, and she was confined to a wheelchair because of her condition. Soon, she wants to be able to leave her therapy with targeted deep brain stimulation and live on her own in her own room for the first time as an adult. She is looking forward to this significant milestone. His obsessive-compulsive condition, sometimes known as OCD, is severe. Hum is 24 years old. Because of her obsessive-compulsive disorder, she was unable to eat or drink, and she also harmed herself.
“Because I have OCD, I thought food and drinks were dirty,” Hum stated in response. She was concerned that the food she ate included insecticides or chemicals that were harmful to her health. “I knew these thoughts were crazy, but I really wanted to gain weight, eat the right amount, drink enough, and be healthy.” She remarked, “But my doubts were just so loud,” and meant it. “I couldn’t concentrate on anything else because they were yelling.”
Due to the numerous alterations that occurred in her blood pressure and heart rate, she was unable to move around without the assistance of a wheelchair. By means of an intravenous (IV) line, which consisted of a tube that was inserted through her nose and into her stomach, they provided her with food and drink. Following the treatment that she received, she is doing significantly better. Her high school equivalency award was presented to her in the month of August by the school. For a picture with it, she offered a broad smile. Now that she is able to eat and drink on a daily basis, she is no longer able to damage herself. She asserts that unwelcome thoughts are no longer in control of the situation.
“My OCD used to be like the captain of the ship, but now it’s more like an annoying passenger.” Hum responded by saying, “It’s there, but it’s not taking over my life.” This life-saving improvement, according to her and her doctors, is the result of recent research that assisted them in more accurately targeting a faulty circuit with a deep brain stimulator, which is a device that functions similarly to a pacemaker for her brain. For the past two decades, deep brain stimulators have been utilized to assist individuals who suffer from Parkinson’s disease and dystonia and who struggle to move properly.
In more recent years, they have been utilized in the treatment of a greater number of ailments, including Tourette syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and mood disorders such as depression. Both of the gadgets are equipped with two sensors that are directed at the subthalamic nucleus, which is a region that is located deep within the brain and is roughly the size of a pea. A node that resembles a contact lens has more than 500,000 nerve cells. This node is named after the contact lens.
This is the mechanism by which information travels from the outside to the interior of the brain. Dr. Andreas Horn, a neuroscientist who works in the Brain Modulation Lab at Massachusetts General Hospital, describes it as being comparable to a telephone line. Doctors insert the probes by placing them in close proximity to the subthalamic nucleus, and then they use a pulse generator that is positioned beneath the skin of the chest to make adjustments to the settings.
After allowing the body to heal for around two weeks following surgery, they turn on the electricity and adjust the settings while continuing to do so until the patient is satisfied with them. HUM expressed something along the lines of, “All of a sudden I’ll feel lighter, my rituals will slow down, I’ll sit up straighter, and I’ll have more energy.”
