John Polish's Site

CURRENT DEVELOPMENT

• Treatment algorithms are being developed for patients who fail one type of treatment. The next step in the algorithm can be followed up. Research is going on to evolve such algorithms but not much headway has been made.



• Research was conducted on people who resisted treatment of OCD. Seroquel was added to a serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SRI). In another formulation, SRI was added to a placebo. There was a marked improvement in OCD patients who received Seroquel and SRI than in patients who took SRI and placebo. So the importance of Seroquel was underlined and steps are being taken to use it in more and more OCD patients.



• Another research was carried out to compare the efficiency of evaluated exposure and response prevention (ERP) and cognitive behavior therapy (CBT). Both were found to be equally effective. ERP was more helpful in group therapy.



• Some studies show that Luvox CR is very effective in controlling OCD, and the patient started to show improvement after 2 weeks of usage.



• Zyprexa were given along to those who did not respond to Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft – These are Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRI). Most responded well to this kind of treatment.



• Another New OCD Treatment involved the drug Zofran. This too is helpful in treating OCD.



• Again people who had failed to respond to SSRI were treated to Effexor. It was found to be as effective as the time-tested Anafranil and there were no side-effects as well.|Effexor seems to be as effective as Anafranil to some people who had failed to respond to SSRI. Anafranil has been time-tested and were no side effect as well.}



• Luvox is another New OCD Treatment drug. It is mainly used in children.



• The most promising of all discoveries has been the Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) therapy. The parts of the brain that are affected by OCD have been identified. 2 electrical stimulators are implanted in either side of the brain in these OCD specific areas. These stimulators are in turn connected to pacemaker-like devices. The exact amount of stimulation is then provided to the brain to keep the OCD at bay. Patients, who had previously been treated with different OCD drugs and given CBT, responded positively to DBS. There are very few adverse effects reported. Few cases have failed with cerebral hemorrhage and certain infections taking place though. However, these cases are few and far between. Keeping the current to a minimum value in the stimulators reduces the chances of failure.

Overview