Advances in Neuromodulation: The Orbitofrontal-Striatal Model Of, and Deep Brain Stimulation In, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Obsessive-compulsive disorder is a common chronic neuropsychiatric illness. Estimates of the lifetime prevalence rate of obsessive-compulsive disorder will vary depending on the methods used to gather the epidemiological data and the diagnostic criteria used to define obsessive-compulsive disorder. Estimates of the lifetime prevalence of obsessive-compulsive disorder have been reported to be to be between 1.9%-3.3%, when obsessive compulsive disorder was defined without DSM-III criteria. A slightly lower prevalence of obsessivecompulsive disorder was reported to be between 1.2%-2.4%, when obsessive-compulsive disorder was defined using DSM-III criteria123. These estimates of the prevalence of obsessive-compulsive disorder are likely to be accurate because they are based on: a.) population-based data; b.) that was gathered from five US communities; c.) from more than 18,500 outpatients; participating in the NIMH Epidemiologic Catchment Area (ECA) a Study. The lifetime prevalence rates obtained from the NIMH ECA study were 25-60 times higher than previous estimates, which were based on studies of clinical populations. If the true lifetime prevalence of OCD in the United States is 2.5%, then it follows that 6.5 million Americans will be affected by obsessive-compulsive disorder during their lifetime. If the 1month prevalence rate of OCD in the United States is 1.3 %, then approximately 3.4 million Americans suffer from obsessive compulsive disorder each Month4. Regardless of the specific epidemiological and diagnostic methods used to estimate the incidence or prevalence of obsessive-compulsive disorder, literally millions of Americans are affected by the symptoms.