Brain Stimulation Techniques in Psychiatry.

ABSTRACT

Some chronic patients remain resistant in spite of using well-advanced pharmacological and non –pharmacological treatments. Some of the severe cases may benefit from treatment with neurosurgical interventions. Besides pharmacological, behavioral, and neurosurgical approaches, different brain stimulation methods-Tran cranial magnetic stimulation, deep brain stimulation, and electro convulsive therapy-have been investigated in treatment-resistant patients with Depression and OCD. The work done in these areas till now, is quite limited in terms of sample size and study design, given the difficulty in conducting standard blinded trials for these procedures. This article is written to know the efficacy and tolerability of these procedures.