Procedure Leaves OCD Patient 'Reborn'

July 15, 2007 — -- Since he was 9 years old, Mario Della Grotta has been consumed by compulsive thoughts for at least 18 hours a day.

"It was literally a full time job for me to live," he said.

Even something as common as brushing his teeth in the morning became complicated.

"I would start brushing my teeth, once, twice, three times," Della Grotta said. "I would shower, it never felt right. I would shower a second time."

OCD, also known as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, fueled his extreme cleanliness and counting rituals.

"A lot of Mario's behaviors, his rituals, were mental rituals," said Sheri Della Grotta, Mario's wife. "They weren't always apparent to the casual observer."

A simple task like shopping would throw Della Grotto into a state of confusion.

"My mind was always constantly racing," he said. "I couldn't stop checking. I couldn't stop counting."

Della Grotta said if he spent $37 of $100, he would go to another store and spend $20.

"After I went from store to store, I would start from the beginning again -- $40 here, $20 here, $19 here," Della Grotta said.

It became so extreme, Della Grotta even considered suicide inside the mall where his OCD would spiral out of control.

"It was too difficult for me to continue to live like that every day of my life," he said. "I looked over the balcony and I said, 'If I was to jump, my OCD would end.'"

Psychiatrist Dr. Ben Greenberg, who works at Butler Hospital in Providence, R.I., said when he first met Della Grotta, he was despondent, profoundly demoralized and couldn't interact in his marriage.

"He really was disabled by the severity of the OCD," Greenberg said.

In fact, Della Grotta's case was the most extreme the doctor said he had seen.

Medicines and traditional therapies to treat OCD failed Della Grotta. So, Dr. Greenberg recommended a radical procedure -- deep brain stimulation, or DBS, in which electrodes are inserted into the brain and connected to a small pacemaker-type device implanted in the chest.