Amber Pearson, who received a brain implant to treat her epilepsy and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), shows the approximate location of a brain implant received at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) Hospital in Portland , Oregon.
American Amber Pearson used to wash her hands until they bled, terrified of contamination from everyday objects, a debilitating result of her obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).
But the repetitive rituals of his illness are largely forgotten, thanks to a revolutionary brain implant used to treat both his epilepsy and OCD.
“I am actually present in my daily life and it’s incredible,” the 34-year-old told AFP.
“Before, I was constantly in my head worrying about my compulsions.”
Brain implants recently hit the headlines with Elon Musk’s announcement that his company Neuralink had placed a chip in a patient’s head, which scientists hope will eventually make it possible to control a smartphone with just one device. thinking about it.
But the idea of inserting a device into the brain is not new, and doctors have known for decades that precisely applied electrical stimulation can affect brain function.
Such deep brain stimulation is used in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease and other conditions affecting movement, including epilepsy.
Pearson’s doctors offered him a 32-millimeter (just over an inch long) device to treat his debilitating epileptic seizures, confident that it would be able to detect the activity causing the episodes and to deliver an impulse to interfere with them.
Amber Pearson shows a model of the brain implant she received at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) Hospital in Portland, Oregon.
That’s when Pearson herself had a lightbulb moment.
“It was his idea to say, ‘Well, you go into my brain and put this wire in, and I have OCD, so can you just put in a wire for OCD?'” recalls neurosurgeon Ahmed Raslan, who carried out the study. procedure at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, on the west coast of the United States.
“And you know, fortunately, we took that suggestion seriously.”
There had previously been studies using deep brain stimulation for people with OCD, but, Raslan says, it had never been linked to treatment for epilepsy.
Doctors worked with Pearson to see exactly what happens in her brain when she is trapped in an obsessive loop.
The technique involved exposing it to known stressors – in this case, seafood – and recording the electrical markers.
Dr. Ahmed Raslan, professor of neurological surgery, discusses brain implant placement with patient Amber Pearson.
This way, they could effectively isolate the brain activity associated with his OCD.
They could then configure his implant to respond to that specific signal.
Hope
The dual-program device now monitors brain activity associated with both epilepsy and OCD.
It is “the only device in the world that treats two pathologies,” explains Raslan.
“And it’s independently programmed. So the epilepsy program is different from the OCD program.”
He believes it’s a breakthrough that only someone like Pearson could have achieved.
“This is the first time in the world that this has been done. Usually we think of devices for either OCD or epilepsy.
“This idea is off the beaten track and would only come from a patient,” he says.
Raslan said a study is currently underway at the University of Pennsylvania to see how this technique can be applied more widely, offering hope to some of the 2.5 million people in the United States who suffer from OCD.
-
Dr. Ahmed Raslan, professor of neurological surgery, demonstrates brain implant placement for patient Amber Pearson.
-
Amber Pearson, who received a brain implant to treat her epilepsy and obsessive compulsive disorder, said she was ‘happy again’
For Pearson, it took eight months after the 2019 procedure to notice a noticeable difference.
But little by little, the all-consuming rituals that had taken up eight or nine hours a day since he was a teenager began to ease.
Endless pre-bed checklists, closing windows and constant hand washing have been reduced to a manageable 30 minutes per day.
And the fear of being contaminated by eating with others has now disappeared.
“I’m happy and excited again to get out and live and be with my friends and family,” she said.
It was “something I had been cut off from for years.”
© 2024 AFP
Quote: US patient ‘happy again’ after brain implant treats epilepsy and OCD (February 4, 2024) retrieved February 4, 2024 from
This document is subject to copyright. Except for fair use for private study or research purposes, no part may be reproduced without written permission. The content is provided for information only.
