Connectomic deep brain stimulation for obsessive-compulsive disorder
Open accessAbstract
Obsessive-compulsive disorder is among the most disabling psychiatric disorders. Although deep brain stimulation is considered an effective treatment, its use in clinical practice is not fully established. This is, at least in part, due to ambiguity about the best suited target and insufficient knowledge about underlying mechanisms. Recent advances suggest that changes in broader brain networks are responsible for improvement of obsessions and compulsions, rather than local impact at the stimulation site. These findings were fueled by innovative methodological approaches using brain connectivity analyses in combination with neuromodulatory interventions. Such a connectomic approach for neuromodulation constitutes an integrative account that aims to characterize optimal target networks. In this critical review, we integrate findings from connectomic studies and deep brain stimulation interventions to characterize a neural network presumably effective in reducing obsessions and compulsions. To this end, we scrutinize methodologies and seemingly conflicting findings with the aim to merge observations to identify common and diverse pathways for treating obsessive-compulsive disorder. Ultimately, we propose a unified network that-when modulated by means of cortical or subcortical interventions-alleviates obsessive-compulsive symptoms.
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The connectomic DBS simulation approach may partly reduce ambiguity about the best intervention target and is suitable for brain disorders involving several abnormal circuits, such as OCD.
“It may partly reduce the ambiguity about the best intervention target and is quite suitable for brain disorders that involve several abnormal circuits, e.g., OCD (For a review, see (Baldermann et al., 2021)).”
From Quantitative mapping of the brain’s structural connectivity using diffusion MRI tractography: A review (2022) · cites this paper as Baldermann et al., 2021
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- Authors
- Baldermann, J. C., Schüller, T., Kohl, S., Voon, V., Li, N., Hollunder, B., Figee, M., Haber, S. N., Sheth, S. A., Mosley, P. E., Huys, D., Johnson, K. A., Butson, C., Ackermans, L., Bouwens van der Vlis, T., Leentjens, A. F. G., Barbe, M., Visser-Vandewalle, V., Kuhn, J., & Horn, A.
- Affiliations
- University of Cologne (DE)
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin (DE)
- Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (DE)
- Mount Sinai Hospital (US)
- Harvard University (US)
- Baylor College of Medicine (US)
- The University of Queensland (AU)
- University of Florida Health (US)
- University of Utah (US)
- Maastricht University (NL)
- Corresponding author
- Baldermann, Juan Carlos
- ORCID
- Baldermann, Juan Carlos
- Schüller, Thomas
- Kohl, Sina
- Voon, Valerie
- Li, Ningfei
- Hollunder, Barbara
- Figee, Martijn
- Haber, Suzanne N.
- Sheth, Sameer A.
- Mosley, Philip E.
- Huys, Daniel
- Johnson, Kara A.
- Butson, Christopher
- Ackermans, Linda
- Leentjens, Albert F.G.
- Barbe, Michael
- Visser-Vandewalle, Veerle
- Kuhn, Jens
- Horn, Andreas
- Venue
- Biological Psychiatry
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2021-11
- Volume
- 90
- Issue
- 10
- Pages
- 678-688
- ISSN
- 0006-3223 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3186417280
- Cited by
- 118
- References
- 20
- Citations by year
- 2026: 17 · 2025: 17 · 2024: 25 · 2023: 27 · 2022: 24 · 2021: 8
- FWCI
- 2.79
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Biological Psychiatry (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Kölner Universitäts PublikationsServer (Universität zu Köln) (publishedVersion)
- Research Publications (Maastricht University) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Research Publications (Maastricht University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Deutsches Zentrum für Luft und Raumfahrt
- National Institutes of Health (MH106435)
- UCB
- Medtronic
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (SFB 1451, 424778381, 410169619, 424778381 \u2013 TRR 295, 431549029 \u2013SFB 1451)
- Boston Scientific Corporation
- EU Joint Programme – Neurodegenerative Disease Research
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorders
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Neurology › Neurological disorders and treatments
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Neurology › Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Studies
- Keywords
- obsessive-compulsive disorder, deep brain stimulation, connectomics, brain networks, neuromodulation, stimulation targets, obsessions and compulsions, therapeutic mechanisms
- MeSH terms
- Brain, Humans, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Treatment Outcome, Deep Brain Stimulation, Connectome
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