Sanneke de Haan

I have investigated the changes that Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder patients experience during treatment with Deep Brain Stimulation.

 

Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) is a relatively new, experimental treatment for patients suffering from treatment-refractory Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). DBS involves the implantation of electrodes in the brain, which give a continuous electrical pulse to modulate the activity in that brain area. At the Academic Medical Center of the University of Amsterdam, where this project took place, all psychiatric patients received DBS in the nucleus accumbens of both hemispheres. The effects of treatment are typically assessed with psychopathological scales that measure the amount of symptoms. However, clinical experience indicates that the effects of DBS are not limited to symptoms only: patients for instance report changes in perception, self-confidence, doing things unthinkingly, and in their social interactions. The aim of this project was to get a better overview of the whole variety of changes that OCD patients experience following DBS treatment.

 

For that purpose, I conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with 18 OCD patients on their experiences. Such qualitative research into the experiences of patients and their relatives is important because it helps to gain insight in the overall effects of DBS, which in turn helps to improve current DBS treatment by better tailoring treatment to patients’ needs. Furthermore, a better overview of possible experiences is useful for prospective patients and their relatives to prepare for what might happen following DBS treatment.

 

In this project I collaborated with:

Prof. Dr. Damiaan Denys, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam
Prof. Erik Rietveld, Academic Medical Center, Cognitive Science Center Amsterdam, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Prof. Dr. Martin Stokhof, Institute for Logic, Language, and Computation, University of Amsterdam

Publications: The impact of DBS on the experiences of OCD patients: Phenomenology & Identity

Snoek, A, de Haan, S.E., Schermer, M., Klosterkötter, D. (2019), On the Significance of the Identity Debate in DBS and the Need of an Inclusive Research Agenda. A Reply to Gilbert, Viana and Ineichen. Neuroethics.

Sanneke de Haan (2017), Missing oneself or becoming oneself? The difficulty of what “becoming a different person” means. AJOB Neuroscience, 8(2), pp. 110-112.

Sanneke de Haan, Rietveld, E., Stokhof, M., Denys, D. (2017), Becoming more oneself? Changes in personality following DBS treatment for psychiatric disorders: Experiences of OCD patients and general considerations. PLoS ONE 12-4, pp. 1-27.

Sanneke de Haan, Rietveld, E., Stokhof, M., Denys, D. (2015), Effects of Deep Brain Stimulation on the lived experience of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder patients. In-depth interviews with 18 patients. PLoS ONE 10-8, pp. 1-29.

Sanneke de Haan, Rietveld, E., Denys, D. (2014), Stimulating good practice: what an embodied cognition approach could actually mean for DBS practice. AJOB Neuroscience 5-4, pp. 46-48.

Sanneke de Haan, Rietveld, Erik, Stokhof, Martin, Denys, Damiaan (2013), The phenomenology of Deep Brain Stimulation-induced changes in OCD: An enactive affordance-based model. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 7, pp. 1-14.