Severe OCD - Find Out About the Newest Treatments Available For Severe Cases of OCD
While many Obsessive Compulsive Disorder sufferers were helped by different behavioral therapies and conventional drugs, a bigger number of cases wherein the severity of the OCD has become very complicated have remained unaddressed, with the sufferers or at least one in every fifty adults in the US linger into unfaltering hope that time will come the severe OCD can be treated.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy has been proven to be the most effective way to treat OCD.
The therapy eventually makes the sufferer realize that his or her fears and the anxiety he or she feels is irrational and should not be taken seriously.
Through the therapy, each sufferer is exposed to his phobias and fears and is later made to realize that the dangers associated to not doing the ritual or the habit is not existent.
For many OCD cases, CBT has been truly effective, but still, there are recorded cases when the therapy fails.
The closest option that therapists take whenever they realize that a therapy is not sufficient to treat the condition of a sufferer is the prescription of drugs.
The most commonly prescribed drug belongs to the group of medicines called Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors or SSRIs.
However, in severe cases when these drugs don't work as well, OCD patients eventually feel that there is not hope for their situation.
The good news though, in early 2000, Medtronic's Deep Brain Stimulation Therapy or DBS has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration of the US for treating chronic and severe OCD.
The usage of this device indicates that the use of CBT and SSRIs failed thus the more drastic approach.
As few as 4000 patients each year are qualified to undergo DBS therapy, while the rest are still assured that other forms of treatments are more appropriate and necessary.
DBS involves surgical operations - the deep brain stimulator has to be implanted into targeted areas in the brain.
The concept of the device is close to that of a heart's pacemaker wherein a carefully controlled electrical pulse is intended to reach specific regions of the brain to get appropriate responses or to correct inappropriate responses.
The settings of the strength and the frequency of the pulse can be programmed and re-programmed by a clinician who knows exactly the settings needed for each patient having unique cases.
Adjusting the settings of the device no longer need surgical operation.
The effectiveness of DBS has been studied in 26 unique cases of severe OCD sufferers, all of which have proven to resist other modes of treatments such as CBT and SSRIs.
Only a third of the sufferers showed insignificant improvements after the therapy and the surgery.
Majority of the patients improved from being rated as severely obsessive compulsive to mildly or moderately obsessive compulsive.
However, despite this good news, the sad truth lies on the fact that the implantation of the medical device used in CBS, like all other surgeries done in the head, pose great risk of cerebral hemorrhage and brain infections which might lead to death.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy has been proven to be the most effective way to treat OCD.
The therapy eventually makes the sufferer realize that his or her fears and the anxiety he or she feels is irrational and should not be taken seriously.
Through the therapy, each sufferer is exposed to his phobias and fears and is later made to realize that the dangers associated to not doing the ritual or the habit is not existent.
For many OCD cases, CBT has been truly effective, but still, there are recorded cases when the therapy fails.
The closest option that therapists take whenever they realize that a therapy is not sufficient to treat the condition of a sufferer is the prescription of drugs.
The most commonly prescribed drug belongs to the group of medicines called Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors or SSRIs.
However, in severe cases when these drugs don't work as well, OCD patients eventually feel that there is not hope for their situation.
The good news though, in early 2000, Medtronic's Deep Brain Stimulation Therapy or DBS has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration of the US for treating chronic and severe OCD.
The usage of this device indicates that the use of CBT and SSRIs failed thus the more drastic approach.
As few as 4000 patients each year are qualified to undergo DBS therapy, while the rest are still assured that other forms of treatments are more appropriate and necessary.
DBS involves surgical operations - the deep brain stimulator has to be implanted into targeted areas in the brain.
The concept of the device is close to that of a heart's pacemaker wherein a carefully controlled electrical pulse is intended to reach specific regions of the brain to get appropriate responses or to correct inappropriate responses.
The settings of the strength and the frequency of the pulse can be programmed and re-programmed by a clinician who knows exactly the settings needed for each patient having unique cases.
Adjusting the settings of the device no longer need surgical operation.
The effectiveness of DBS has been studied in 26 unique cases of severe OCD sufferers, all of which have proven to resist other modes of treatments such as CBT and SSRIs.
Only a third of the sufferers showed insignificant improvements after the therapy and the surgery.
Majority of the patients improved from being rated as severely obsessive compulsive to mildly or moderately obsessive compulsive.
However, despite this good news, the sad truth lies on the fact that the implantation of the medical device used in CBS, like all other surgeries done in the head, pose great risk of cerebral hemorrhage and brain infections which might lead to death.