Historical overview of psychosurgery and its problematic.

Abstract

In 1936, Egas Moniz published his first paper on frontal leucotomy for psychiatric illness. The initial enthusiasm for this innovative treatment of intractable psychiatric disorders and chronic pain was soon tempered by reports of undesirable side-effects, and neurosurgeons began a search for modifications of leucotomy which would increase safety without reducing efficacy. As a result of these clinical investigations, the original imprecise, radical frontal leucotomy has been superseded by precise, small stereotactically placed lesions in the limbic system and the descriptive phase "limbic system surgery" is replacing the out-moded word "psychosurgery". This presentation will document some of the more important contributions to a currently under-utilized, often criticized approach to the treatment of suffering individuals chronically disabled by psychiatric illness and pain.