Marloes Oudijn

Contact Information

Location:
Department Psychiatry MPU
Amsterdam Medical Centre
Meibergdreef 5, PB0.425
1105 AZ Amsterdam

Tel: +31 6 31 01 56 98
E-mail: m.s.oudijn@amsterdamumc.nl

About

Introduction

In 2008 I finished my training in psychiatry at the Academic Medical Centre in Amsterdam and in 2009 I completed my additional training in child- and adolescent psychiatry. Since 2010 I am working as a psychiatrist at the Academic Medical Centre (AMC) in Amsterdam. In the same year we started the Medical Psychiatric Unit (MPU), a clinical unit where patients with combined somatic and psychiatric problems are admitted for specialized diagnostics and/or treatment. Part of the population at the MPU consist of patients with an eating disorder with severe somatic complications, which need intensive somatic monitoring and care, refeeding and psychiatric treatment.

Research

My research project consists of an experimental pilot study to demonstrate the efficacy, feasibility and safety of deep brain stimulation (DBS) in patients with chronic, treatment-refractory anorexia nervosa (AN). Many parallels between obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and anorexia nervosa have been drawn with regard to symptomatology and pathophysiology. Neurobiological research indicates the involvement of the frontostriatal neurocircuitry in the pathophysiology of AN. It is conceivable that the significant relapse and failure rates of current anorexia nervosa treatments may be at least in part the result of this dysregulated frontostriatal neurocircuitry. Our hypothesis was that DBS might normalize aberrant functioning of the reward circuitry. We studied the efficacy, feasibility and safety of DBS in AN and conducted several substudies on the functional effects of DBS in AN. Results of this first study indicate that vALIC DBS seems a valid last-resort intervention in chronic, treatment-refractory AN. Our findings pave the way for a follow-up study with a larger sample size, to establish DBS as a standardized last resort treatment in this challenging patient group.

Marloes Oudijn, PhD.

Publications

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