Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2019 Jan;61(Suppl 1):S66-S76.
doi: 10.4103/psychiatry.IndianJPsychiatry_522_18.

Noninvasive brain stimulation in obsessive-compulsive disorder

Venkataram Shivakumar  1   2 , Damodharan Dinakaran  1 , Janardhanan C Narayanaswamy  1   2 , Ganesan Venkatasubramanian  1
Affiliations
Review

Noninvasive brain stimulation in obsessive-compulsive disorder

Venkataram Shivakumar et al. Indian J Psychiatry. 2019 Jan.

Abstract

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a complex neuropsychiatric disorder with a chronic course, contributing to significant socio-occupational dysfunction. Forty percent of patients remain treatment refractive despite mainstream treatment options such as serotonin-reuptake inhibitors and cognitive behavior therapy. Noninvasive brain stimulation approaches such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) have piqued interest as add-on treatment options in OCD. This review focuses on summarizing the TMS and tDCS studies in OCD with respect to their study design and stimulation parameters and key findings. We also briefly discuss the limitations and future directions noninvasive brain stimulation in OCD.

Keywords: Neuromodulation; noninvasive brain stimulation; obsessive compulsive disorder; repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation; transcranial direct current stimulation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

There are no conflicts of interest.

References

    1. Jenike MA. Clinical practice. Obsessive-compulsive disorder. N Engl J Med. 2004;350:259–65. - PubMed
    1. Hirschtritt ME, Bloch MH, Mathews CA. Obsessive-compulsive disorder: Advances in diagnosis and treatment. JAMA. 2017;317:1358–67. - PubMed
    1. Brunelin J, Mondino M, Bation R, Palm U, Saoud M, Poulet E, et al. Transcranial direct current stimulation for obsessive-compulsive disorder: A systematic review. Brain Sci. 2018;8:pii: E37. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Cocchi L, Zalesky A, Nott Z, Whybird G, Fitzgerald PB, Breakspear M, et al. Transcranial magnetic stimulation in obsessive-compulsive disorder: A focus on network mechanisms and state dependence. Neuroimage Clin. 2018;19:661–74. - PMC - PubMed
    1. van den Heuvel OA, van Wingen G, Soriano-Mas C, Alonso P, Chamberlain SR, Nakamae T, et al. Brain circuitry of compulsivity. Eur Neuropsychopharmacol. 2016;26:810–27. - PubMed