Psychosurgery, also called neurosurgery for mental disorder (NMD), is the neurosurgical treatment of mental disorder.[1] Psychosurgery has always been a controversial medical field.[1] The modern history of psychosurgery begins in the 1880s under the Swiss psychiatrist Gottlieb Burckhardt.[2][3] The first significant foray into psychosurgery in the 20th century was conducted by the Portuguese neurologist Egas Moniz who, during the mid-1930s, developed the operation known as leucotomy. The practice was enthusiastically taken up in the United States by the neuropsychiatrist Walter Freeman and the neurosurgeon James W. Watts who devised what became the standard prefrontal procedure and named their operative technique lobotomy, although the operation was called leucotomy in the United Kingdom.[4] In spite of the award of the Nobel prize to Moniz in 1949, the use of psychosurgery declined during the 1950s. By the 1970s the standard Freeman-Watts type of operation was very rare, but other forms of psychosurgery, although used on a much smaller scale, survived. Some countries have abandoned psychosurgery altogether; in others, for example the US and the UK, it is only used in a few centres on small numbers of people with depression or obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).[5]
In some countries it is also used in the treatment of schizophrenia and other disorders.[6][7]
Psychosurgery is a collaboration between psychiatrists and neurosurgeons. During the operation, which is carried out under a general anaesthetic and using stereotactic methods, a small piece of brain is destroyed or removed. The most common types of psychosurgery in current or recent use are anterior capsulotomy, cingulotomy, subcaudate tractotomy and limbic leucotomy. Lesions are made by radiation, thermo-coagulation, freezing or cutting.[1] About a third of patients show significant improvement in their symptoms after operation.[1] Advances in surgical technique have greatly reduced the incidence of death and serious damage from psychosurgery; the remaining risks include seizures, incontinence, decreased drive and initiative, weight gain, and cognitive and affective problems.[1]
Currently, interest in the neurosurgical treatment of mental illness is shifting from ablative psychosurgery (where the aim is to destroy brain tissue) to deep brain stimulation (DBS) where the aim is to stimulate areas of the brain with implanted electrodes.[8]
^Berrios, G.E. (1997). "The origins of psychosurgery: Shaw, Burckhardt and Moniz". History of Psychiatry. 8 (29): 61–82. doi:10.1177/0957154X9700802905. PMID 11619209. S2CID 22225524.
^Shorter, Edward (1997). A history of psychiatry: from the era of the asylum to the age of prozac. New York: John Wiley & Sons. p. 225. ISBN 978-0-471-15749-6.
^Freeman, Walter; James W. Watts (1942). Psychosurgery. Baltimore.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Neurosurgery working group 2000 Neurosurgery for mental disorder. London: Royal College of Psychiatrists
^N. Zamiska 2007 In China, brain surgery is pushed on the mentally ill. Wall Street Journal, 2 November
^Barcia, J.A.; et al. (2007). "Present status of psychosurgery in Spain". Neurocirugía. 18 (4): 301–11. doi:10.1016/S1130-1473(07)70274-9. PMID 17882337.
^Sachdev, P.; Chen, X. (2009). "Neurosurgical treatment of mood disorders: traditional psychosurgery and the advent of deep brain stimulation". Current Opinion in Psychiatry. 22 (1): 25–31. doi:10.1097/YCO.0b013e32831c8475. PMID 19122531. S2CID 30892980.
Psychosurgery, also called neurosurgery for mental disorder (NMD), is the neurosurgical treatment of mental disorder. Psychosurgery has always been a...
Psychosurgery, also called neurosurgery for mental disorder or functional neurosurgery, is surgery in which brain tissue is destroyed with the aim of...
medical ethics Frontal lobe disorder Frontal lobe injury Psychosurgery History of psychosurgery in the United Kingdom Walter Rudolf Hess, who was the joint...
and in the subsequent decades psychosurgery was attempted only intermittently. On November 12, 1935, a new psychosurgery procedure was performed in Portugal...
Psychosurgery is a surgical operation that destroys brain tissue in order to alleviate the symptoms of mental disorder. The lesions are usually, but not...
The frontal lobe is the largest of the four major lobes of the brain in mammals, and is located at the front of each cerebral hemisphere (in front of the...
and historical procedures like the lobotomy: 28 and other forms of psychosurgery or insulin shock therapy, and the history of racism within the profession...
medical interventions Psychoactive drugs Castration Chemical castration Psychosurgery Laws Kendra's Law Laura's Law Courts and Tribunals Court order Mental...
interventions including psychosurgery. In 1888, Swiss psychiatrist Gottlieb Burckhardt performed the first medically sanctioned psychosurgery in which the cerebral...
medical interventions Psychoactive drugs Castration Chemical castration Psychosurgery Laws Kendra's Law Laura's Law Courts and Tribunals Court order Mental...
University of Michigan. He is a noted authority on brain stimulation, psychosurgery and the history of psychiatry. Valenstein was born in New York City...
a laboratory to continue his research. In 1888, he pioneered modern psychosurgery when he excised various brain regions from six psychiatric patients...
to Gage played a role in the later development of various forms of psychosurgery—particularly lobotomy—or even that Gage's accident constituted "the...
0001. ISBN 9780199687817. Berrios GE (March 1997). "The origins of psychosurgery: Shaw, Burckhardt and Moniz". History of Psychiatry. 8 (29 pt 1): 61–81...
performing leucotomies (also known as lobotomy) and other forms of psychosurgery. Invented by Canadian neurosurgeon Dr. Kenneth G. McKenzie in the 1940s...
induce seizures was in use as electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) by 1938. Psychosurgery, including the lobotomy and frontal lobotomy – carried out from the...
Bilateral cingulotomy is a form of psychosurgery, introduced in 1948 as an alternative to lobotomy. Today, it is mainly used in the treatment of depression...
"Informed consent for special procedures: electroconvulsive therapy and psychosurgery". Current Opinion in Anesthesiology. 26 (2): 182–85. doi:10.1097/ACO...
disorders, this connection was sometimes surgically severed, a procedure of psychosurgery, called a prefrontal lobotomy (this is actually a misnomer). Patients...
persuade his patients to accept Christianity. One scholar has described psychosurgery as "Neurosurgical Exorcisms", with trepanation having been widely used...
by physical means (such as medication, electroconvulsive therapy, or psychosurgery) rather than psychotherapy. Shahrokh, Narriman C.; Hales, Robert E.;...
invented by the Italian neurologist Ugo Cerletti in 1938. The use of psychosurgery was narrowed to a very small number of people for specific indications...
Psychosurgery Archived 1 July 2017 at the Wayback Machine [Retrieved on 5 August 2008] Mashour GA, Walker EE, Martuza RL (June 2005). "Psychosurgery:...
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