Patient Resource Hub

text

Katie's Story

“I’ve suffered from OCD for as long as I can remember,” says Katie Whitson, a woman from Florida with extremely severe obsessive-compulsive disorder. “OCD is a particularly vicious disease – While I was fully conscious and aware that my anxious thoughts and compulsive behaviors were not entirely rational, there was nothing I could do to stop those intrusive thoughts or obsessive behaviors.”

Despite years of therapies, several types of medications, and intensive outpatient and residential programs, Katie’s OCD symptoms continued to worsen.

“I was very anxious about contamination and germs. During my worst OCD episodes, I simply could not leave my bedroom or house for months” Whitson added. “My life had shrunk tremendously, and I was a tiny fragment of who I was. I felt completely unrecognizable to myself, my family, and my friends.

I read about this new surgical procedure called deep brain stimulation and found that a team at Baylor College of Medicine were leaders in that type of surgery,” she added. Soon after her initial conversation with the BCM team Katie enrolled in a research study on an innovative form of DBS for OCD being conducted by Dr. Wayne Goodman, professor and D.C. and Irene Ellwood Chair of the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Dr. Sameer Sheth, professor of Neurosurgery and Cullen Foundation Endowed Chair, and Dr. Nicole Provenza, assistant professor of Neurosurgery and biomedical engineer. Her surgery was performed in August 2020, and Katie is now back to her career and has even been able to start a family.