Are Medications Helping Your OCD?

Medications aren’t helping my OCD. What are my options?

Traditional treatments such as medications and outpatient therapy do not always adequately treat Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Fortunately, a new treatment called Deep TMS therapy is helping OCD patients for the first time. TMS is the same technology that has been utilized for years to successfully treat Major Depressive Disorders (MDD).

TMS, or Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, uses magnetic pulses to stimulate specified brain regions, helping inactive brain cells work more effectively. This can reduce an individual’s level of obsessions and compulsions. It is not a cure, but provides a reduction in the number and severity of OCD symptoms.

BrainsWay — a leader in TMS technology — has developed and patented the only FDA-cleared helmet, referred to as a “Coil,” on the market. OCD and MDD coils are unique from one another and allow stimulation where it’s needed. The coil targets a broader and deeper area of the brain than any other commercially available TMS systems while maintaining safe levels of stimulation.

Patients receive 30-minute-long treatments five days a week for six weeks, although adaptions to the schedule can be made. Many individuals start feeling relief after only a few weeks.

S. Zafar Ahsan, M.D.: Dr. Ahsan obtained his medical degree from Sindh Medical College, in Karachi, Pakistan. He migrated to the USA in 1984. He completed his Psychiatric training in general/adult psychiatry at Lincoln Medical Center, in Bronx, New York. Dr. Ahsan completed his Child and Adolescent fellowship at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York in 1994. Dr. Ahsan moved to Lee County Virginia to establish Psychiatric services at Lee County Community Hospital, in 1994. Keeping in mind the concept of providing the best care to the community, he joined the local community Services Board to provide Psychiatric services to children, adolescents and adults. He has served as consulting-contract Psychiatrist for the Virginia Department of Corrections for the past 10 years.