Obsessive-compulsive disorder can be treated with artificial intelligence

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD, ed. note) is more common than most people think. It is actually one of the most common mental states in the world, in which people with OCD feel a strong impulse to perform various actions in the form of rituals of repetition, rituals of order, or the like.

Today it is possible to get help through behavioral therapy and antidepressants, but researchers may now have found another way to combat OCD – with the help of artificial intelligence.

At the end of 2021, some American researchers published the results of a study. Five people with severe obsessive-compulsive disorder had electrodes implanted in their brains.

These electrodes were connected to a computer that the subjects carried with them, and then the computer recorded activity in different parts of the brain.

In a companion app, subjects were asked to record any compulsions or obsessions, and after several months and more than 1,000 hours of data collected, the researchers came up with several findings.

instant effect

The researchers’ first finding was how compulsions physically appear in the brain, according to the report.

The computer was then able to calculate the type of electrical impulses that would be sent to the brain in order to neutralize the nerve signals that caused the compulsions – which had an immediate effect on people who no longer felt the impulse to carry out the compulsions. .

Fabulous. Right?

Although this type of treatment is still in the experimental stage, treatment can already be offered to people with obsessive compulsions.