The work we do
Orchard OCD is a registered charity that works to accelerate the development of new and better treatments for obsessive-compulsive disorder. Our vision is a world where all patients suffering with OCD receive effective treatment for their condition.
Orchard’s team consists of a board of trustees and a scientific advisory board with many experienced professionals with a passion for health care and mental health.
We also aim to spread awareness around OCD, and we run OCD webinars in partnership with the charity Made of Millions, hosted by Orchard OCD trustee & journalist, Sean Fletcher.
Our current funded research projects include:
Psilocybin:
According to a research project in 2006, psilocybin has been reported to significantly reduce OCD symptoms in OCD patients. Despite positive results, no further research has been carried out due to lack of funding. Orchard OCD collaborated with Professor David Nutt, Imperial College London, and Professor Naomi Fineberg, Queen Elizabeth II Hospital, to run a pilot clinical trial using psilocybin to treat OCD. We raised £60,000 from a crowdfunding campaign in 2020 which was match funded by a foundation. The study has now started and will last 18 months, recruiting and following up 15 patients.
Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (TDCS):
We received funding for our second research project in September 2020. Research at the University of Hertfordshire involves working on a promising new treatment that involves passing a small, almost imperceptible electric current into brain areas connected to OCD. This may help people with OCD think and behave differently and could help treatments work better.
Double-Blind Randomised Placebo-controlled study of Tolcapone for OCD:
Tolcapone is currently used to manage Parkinson’s disease. A team at the University of Chicago have test tolcapone out in a pilot study and found it improved OCD symptoms. They will test this drug out on patients for 8 weeks to see whether it improved OCD symptoms. 60 individuals with OCD will be recruited and will receive 100mg of Tolcapone twice per day against a placebo group. This will then be increased to 200mg twice daily at week two. This study is due to start in 2023 and will last 24 months in total including publicising the results.
Find out more here.
OCD Registry
Orchard OCD is very pleased to be receiving funding from the Bally’s Foundation for a two-year project to build an international registry of OCD patients.
Registries are crucially important for medical research as they can accelerate recruitment into clinical trials of potential treatments and increase our understanding of a disorder such as OCD by asking patients to report their symptoms and current treatments.
If you would like to participate in our registry then please click here.