Targeted Circuit-Based Transcranial Focused Ultrasound Intervention for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Brief Summary

Detailed Description

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a common and highly debilitating disorder with the manifestation of obsessions/compulsions and is associated with a significant impairment in social functioning and quality of life. Estimates show that the effects of OCD create an economic burden of £5 billion/year in the UK alone (Kochar et al. 2023). Novel interventions with greater efficacy in addressing the symptoms of OCD in patients, aiming to surpass the current standards of effectiveness and comprehensiveness in treatment outcomes are needed. Low-intensity transcranial focused ultrasound stimulation (TUS) is a promising emerging non-invasive brain stimulation technique which can neuromodulate any brain region with high spatial resolution. The neural underpinning of OCD is thought to involve many prefrontal regions including the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) but also deeper brain regions like the striatum (habit formation: Ahmari et al. 2017, Denys et al. 2013), the thalamus (Subirà et al. 2016) and the amygdala (overactivity: Fullana et al. 2020, Milad et al. 2013). TUS can focally induce changes in neuronal activity in both cortical and subcortical brain regions with incredibly high spatial resolution (Darmani et al. 2022). The current study will focus on targeting multiple regions playing a significant role in regulating various cognitive and repeated actions in OCD. We will assess safety and efficiency of TUS to different parts of the brain in alleviating OCD symptoms.

Primary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes

• reduction in OCD symptoms(immediately prior to TUS sessions, within 1 hour post TUS and every day that follow TUS for 7 days)