Posted by Bob on September 7, 2008, at 19:02:08
In reply to Re: Abilify for OCD? » yxibow, posted by Phillipa on September 7, 2008, at 12:18:18
> Jay what is cingulatomy? Never heard that word before what about luvox? Phillipa
Phillipa,A cingulotomy is a neurosurgical procedure in which sterotactical lesions are created in the anterior cingulate gyrus region of the brain. This is accomplished by drilling two small holes in the top of the skull and inserting very thin wires down into the brain guided with imaging. When the end of the "electrodes" are verified to be in the correct position, heat is applied to essentially cauterize a small lesion in the localized brain tissue. The wires are then pulled out and the holes patched and allowed to heal. The theory is that interrupting the cingulate gyrus with the sterotactic lesions results in an eventual improvement in some psychiatric conditions, OCD being prime among them.
DBS (Deep Brain Stimulation) is now being studied and a possible replacement/successor to the destructive psychosurgical techniques like cingulotomy. In DBS the leads/electrodes are left in and connected to a chest implanted generator. The generator or stimulator creates a repeating electrical stimulation of a certain programmable parameters which serves to interrupt brain activity in the area of electrode placement, e.g. the cingulate gyrus. The obvious benefit to this latter approach over procedures such as cingulotomy is that it would ostensibly be reversible.
- Bob
poster:Bob
thread:850565
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080903/msgs/850849.html