Lobotomy defines a neurosurgical process, which is a psychosurgery also named leucotomy. This procedure involves cutting of the connections to and from the prefrontal cortex and the anterior part of the brain in the frontal lobes. This idea was pioneered by a Portuguese neurologist named Antonio Egas Moniz in 1935. He performed leucotomy, a brain operation, in a Lisbon hospital. This was the first leucotomy in treating mental illness. He drilled holes in the skull of the patient so as to gain entrance to the brain. The procedure became popular in treatment of serious mental illness including severe depression and schizophrenia. Additionally, the procedure was used in treatment of severe or chronic backaches and pain. Moniz won a Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology in 1949 (Greenblatt 68).
Moniz developed his idea from the work of Gottlieb Burckhardt. Gottlieb used to cut out pieces of the cerebral cortex to calm down patients who were mentally ill. His work received harsh criticisms due to associations with severe complications. Moniz’s procedure was considered more favorable than Burckhardt. His procedures had less severe complications because there were no epileptic convulsions and deaths than in Burckhardt procedures. Fever was the most cited complication in Moniz results. This made him have acceptance in the psychology community.
The concept of lobotomy developed further where Walter Freeman, an American psychiatrist and neurologist together with James Watts performed the first procedure of prefrontal leucotomy in 1936, in George Washington University Hospital, in Washington. He focused at finding an efficient treatment of mental illness without drilling holes into the patient’s head like Moniz performed. He believed that mental illness resulted from an overload of emotions. His treatment involved cutting some nerves in the brain to eliminate excess emotions and stabilize personality. He named his procedure as lobotomy which was a ten minute transorbital lobotomy or ice-pick lobotomy. This became a refined surgical procedure or the standard prefrontal lobotomy (Ramone 56).
The lobotomy of ice-pick gained popularity because many people were desperate to get mental illness treatment. Lobotomy was highly practiced in different nations especially in the United States and Britain. This resulted to overcrowding in mental asylums as there was no antipsychotic medication. Notably, this process resulted to pleasant and tragic results in different patients.
However, lobotomy started to cease in many countries by the late 1970s. There was violent opposition and unquestioning acceptance. This resulted in the identification of the procedure as hazardous and cruel according to Snorre Wohlfahrt, a Swedish psychiatrist.
There was a steady growth of concerns about lobotomy which resulted to banning in many nations. USSR banned lobotomy officially in 1950 after the doctors’ conclusion that it was a procedure contrary to the principles of humanity. They also claimed that it turned a mentally ill person to an idiot by incapacitating them. The procedure was banned in numerous countries by 1970s and some states in America. Notably, some forms of psychosurgery were still practiced though under controlled and regulated US centers and other countries such as Sweden and Netherlands (Greenblatt 90).
In 1977, lobotomy techniques were alleged to control minorities and restrain the rights of individuals. There were also tragic results that had an association with these techniques. The Congress of US resulted to the formation of a committee to research and investigates on the allegations of psychosurgery. The conclusion of the committee was that psychosurgery had to be extremely limited and performed properly for positive results. Additionally, some nations such as Japan and Germany outlawed lobotomies in the early 1950s.
The application of lobotomy did not last long as expected because the scientific and medical communities developed reservations on the efficacy of these procedures. Furthermore, in 1950, Thorazine, the first antipsychotic drug was synthesized to treat schizophrenia. This drug replaced lobotomy and became the preferred treatment (Shutts 101).
Today, lobotomy is illegal in most countries though it is practiced in few but now as neurosurgery for mental disorder. It is used as the last option in treatment of depression, epilepsy and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Additionally, brain’s surgical intervention is still done today in some disorders, but using a more controlled and regulated way. There are cases of brain tumors surgery especially in epilepsy as well as Electroconvulsive therapy in treatment of severe depression. In addition, deep-brain stimulation has been used as successful in treating Parkinson’s disease. This involves inserting electrodes into the brain and inhibiting nerve signals by electrical signals to prevent uncontrollable shaking.
Notably though, cases of digging into the brain are rare nowadays among the surgeons because of the use of drugs which alter the chemistry of brain without the need for surgery. Most of these drugs are antipsychotic drugs, which perform in, a better way than the lobotomy and have less severe complications (Ramone 39).
However, there have also been complications linked to use of these drugs such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder due to intake of Ritalin. Additionally, there has been a risk of using these drugs in treating of socially unacceptable behaviors. For instance, some of these drugs have been used to curb the sex behaviors of sex offenders.
Works Cited
Greenblatt, Milton. Studies in lobotomy,. New York: Grune & Stratton, 1950. Print.
Ramone, Dee Dee, and Veronica Kaufman. Lobotomy: surviving the Ramones. 2nd ed. New York, N.Y.: Thunder's Mouth Press, 2000. Print.
Shutts, David. Lobotomy: resort to the knife. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1982. Print.
