Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) is in. There's been much buzz about its use in severe depression, and it has a long if less glamorous record of success in Parkinson's disease. Now that it's achieved momentum as a treatment in psychiatry, DBS is being tried in a range of conditions including chronic pain, obsessive-compulsive disorder and Tourette's Syndrome. Is the hype justified? Yes - but the scientific and ethical issues are more complex, and more interesting, than you might think.
Biological Psychiatry have just published this report of DBS in a man who suffered from severe, untreatable Tourette's syndrome, as well as OCD. The work was performed by a German group, Neuner et. al. (who also have a review paper just out), and they followed the patient up for three years after implanting high-frequency stimulation electrodes in an area of the brain called the nucleus accumbens. It's fascinating reading, if only ...
