Intraoperative electrical stimulation of the brain in patients with obsessive-compulsive neurosis

Twenty patients with intractable obsessive-compulsive neurosis were operated under local anesthesia. Each patient had a lesion produced in 1 of the 4 brain targets: anterior internal capsule, rostral cingulum, middle cingulum, and genu of the corpus callosum. Before destructive permanent lesions were produced, the target area was stimulated electrically. Stimulation gave subjective or objective reactions in 30% of the patients: diminished anxiety, 3 patients; increased anxiety, 1 patient, and motor responses, 2 patients. None experienced an obsessive reaction to stimulation. The clinical effect of surgery was usually good.