Mental disorders carry heavy burden and come second only to cardiovascular disease. The disability adjusted life years, which is a measure for life years lost due to premature death, for mental disorders is about 15.4% compared to 18.6% for cardiovascular disease and 15% for all cancers put together. Fifteen to 25% of mental disorders become resistant or refractory to all conventional therapy including medications, behavioural therapy and ECT. Some of these patients might be helped by NMD. There are currently a number of surgical interventions that can be used to treat resistant and refractory OCD or MDD.

Ablative neurosurgery includes bilateral anterior cingulotomy, bilateral anterior capsulotomy and subarcuate tractotomy. Neurostimulation for mental disorders is also used includes VNS and DBS.

This symposium will cover the pros and cons of these interventions in detail including referral criteria, patient selection, referral pathways, outcome of these interventions, potential side effects and long term outcomes.

There will be time to ask questions and discuss all aspects of NMD.