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Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is a condition that can disrupt life. This disorder is characterized by anxiety and time-consuming behaviors known as compulsions in which the individual feels inclined to do a particular task in the exact same way or for a set repeated number of times. Although OCD can be treated effectively with drugs and counseling, nearly 20 to 30 percent of the people with this disease do not find relief from these treatment options. In a new study conducted by researchers from the Department of Neurological Sciences at the Universite Laval, Quebec in Canada, the team reported that one type of psychosurgery, known as bilateral anterior capsulotomy, could be effective in treating severe cases of OCD.

In this study, the researchers monitored OCD in nineteen patients. These patients did not respond well to current treatment options and had severe OCD that interrupted their daily lifestyles. The patients all received psychosurgery from the years of 1997 to 2009. Each patient was observed and monitored after the surgery for two years. The researchers then contacted the individuals after an average of seven years to follow up. In order to measure success rate, the researchers used a Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) to record the severity of the disease. An improvement rate of over 35 percent categorized the individual as a responder and a rate of 25 percent meant that the patient was a partial responder.

The researchers found that 36.8 percent of the patients could be considered responders while 10.5 percent of them were partial responders. After the follow up, the researchers concluded that almost half of the participants responded to the surgery, suggesting that it could be a treatment method for some people. Three out of the 19 patients had a successful recovery from their OCD, another three were in remission, and two had surgical complications while none of them died.

"We are aware of the many ethical and sociopolitical considerations related to psychosurgery, but we think that such surgery is appropriate under thoughtful regulation, particularly when the disorder is chronic, intractable to non-invasive treatment modalities and when surgery is the last therapeutic option," the researchers wrote according to Medical Xpress.

The study was published in the British Medical Journal.