Author response: Long-term improvement in obsessions and compulsions with subthalamic stimulation.

We thank Prof. Hariz for the interest in our illustrative single case report of a patient with treatment-resistant obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) with a good outcome of deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) that remained stable over 10 years.1 We fully agree with the importance of systematically publishing long-term data and not just cherry picking, thereby introducing publication bias. The open data from the 5-year follow-up of the STOC study are being analyzed by the lead author of the main study,2 and should be available soon. However, a treatment has never proven its efficacy with a single study. Thus, we are starting a new multicenter study, comparing the effect of STN DBS vs optimized conventional management on quality of life in patients with treatment-resistant OCD.3 With all due respect, we disagree with Prof. Hariz's statement that there is no need to wait for further long-term studies. Many further studies are needed before a consensus is reached on whether there is a place for surgical treatments in treatment-resistant OCD in the world of psychiatry, which is still heavily influenced by the history of past abuses in psychosurgery.