Deep Brain Stimulation for Intractable Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Treatment-Resistant Depression

In deep brain stimulation (DBS), a neurostimulation device is implanted to generate electrical fields in targeted deep brain regions in order to affect circuits associated with neuropsychiatric illness for potential therapeutic benefit. The development of DBS has followed a decades-long history of psychiatric neurosurgery, with advances in pacemakers and spinal neurostimulation devices allowing for the use of DBS in the treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders. Currently, deep brain stimulation for psychiatric illness has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of intractable obsessive-compulsive disorder, through a Humanitarian Device Exemption. The use of DBS for treatment-resistant depression is another promising application of this technology. Several potential targets of DBS have shown promise for treating neuropsychiatric illness, but few have demonstrated efficacy in randomized controlled trials. Future directions for DBS research will likely include modified trial designs, refined targets, the use of tractography for more specific and individualized targeting, and development of closed-loop DBS.