A brain surgery technique being developed could help more than 750,000 people in the UK with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).
Researchers in Korea found that the non-invasive procedure using high-powered ultrasound – during which patients remain awake – significantly reduced the symptoms of the debilitating mental health condition.
Those with OCD suffer from unwanted thoughts and repetitive behaviours, known as compulsions, which can be distressing as well as time-consuming.
Compulsions can include frequent hand washing, counting in patterns, silently repeating a word or phrase or arranging items in a particular way.
About one in 50 people in the UK suffer from OCD at some point in their lives, and most cases can be treated with talking therapy and medication.
The NHS does not recommend brain surgery as a treatment for OCD – but the advice has not been updated since 2005.
The surgery, tested in a ten-year clinical study, uses beams of ultrasound energy to destroy targeted areas of brain tissue.
Patients remain awake for the procedure and are assessed before and after each ultrasound beam is delivered – with side effects limited to headaches or dizziness during the treatment, which later dissipate.
A non-invasive procedure using ultrasound could help people with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)
Those with OCD suffer from unwanted thoughts and repetitive behaviours, known as compulsions, such as frequent hand washing
Called magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound, the ‘scalpel-free’ surgery was shown to reduce symptoms and have no adverse effects more than a decade after being carried out.
The study’s lead researcher, Dr Jin Woo Chang from Korea University Anam Hospital, said: ‘This technology will offer a new lease of life for those suffering and struggling from serious psychiatric problems.’
The ultrasound procedure is currently used by the NHS to treat essential tremor – a nervous system condition that is often a symptom of Parkinson’s – as well as fibroids in the uterus.
According to the researchers, in the future it could also be used to remedy other common psychiatric diseases, such as treatment-resistant depression.
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