Pressing ethical issues in considering pediatric deep brain stimulation for obsessive-compulsive disorder.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Refractory obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) among adults is the first psychiatric indication of deep brain stimulation (DBS) to receive an FDA Humanitarian Device Exemption (HDE). Given the HDE approval and encouraging evidence that has since emerged, exploration of DBS for OCD may expand to adolescents in the future. More than 100,000 adolescents in the U.S. suffer from refractory OCD, and there is already a precedent for the transition of DBS in adults to children in the case of dystonia. However, the risk-benefit analysis of pediatric DBS for OCD may be more complex and raise different ethical questions compared to pediatric DBS for dystonia.

Objective

This study aimed to gain insight into pressing ethical issues related to using DBS in adolescents with OCD.

SUBMITTER: Munoz KA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8608753 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov-Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature