Experts Discuss Deep Brain Stimulation for OCD, Epilepsy
By: Anita Srikameswaran and Tim Betler
Health professionals and patients at Friday’s seminar “Better Quality of Life: Brain Stimulation for Movement Disorders, OCD, and Epilepsy,” heard UPMC experts discuss how deep brain stimulation (DBS) might improve symptoms of not only Parkinson’s disease, dystonia and tremor, but also obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).
As neurosurgeon Mark Richardson explains in this video, UPMC is now offering the DBS procedure under a federal humanitarian device exemption to carefully selected OCD patients who have not been able to get sufficient symptom control with conventional behavioral therapy and medication.
Also in the video, Amy Iannuzzi-Tingley, who struggled in secret with the disorder for years, and her psychiatrist Robert Hudak explain what it’s like to have OCD and how exposure response prevention therapy can help.
