What is a Lobotomy? Risks, History, Effects & Facts
A lobotomy is a surgical procedure that involves cutting or destroying connections in the brain’s prefrontal cortex. It was once used as a treatment for mental disorders such as schizophrenia and depression, but it has since been largely discredited and is no longer in use. The procedure was associated with significant risks, including permanent brain damage, and it is now considered to be inhumane and ineffective
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A lobotomy is a kind of brain surgery that gained popularity as a remedy for mental health issues in the 1930s. It entails cutting off the frontal lobe’s communication with other regions of the brain.
On patients suffering from illnesses like schizophrenia and depression, doctors carried out this surgery. There were no efficient or generally accessible treatments for these illnesses at the time.
But lobotomies can be harmful. Seizures and fatalities are just two of the major risks they present. In the 1950s, this practise was abandoned because of the effects it had on lobotomized individuals and their families. According to 2013 research, trusted source.
Read on to discover more about the causes, hazards, and uses of lobotomies, as well as its history, technique, and applications.
The surgical technique known as a lobotomy, sometimes known as a prefrontal leukotomy, involves severing the nerve pathways in one or more brain lobes from those in other regions. For severely disturbed individuals with schizophrenia, manic depression and mania (bipolar disorder), and other mental diseases, the treatment was once employed as a radical therapeutic measure.
In the late 1880s, Swiss physician Gottlieb Burkhardt, who oversaw an insane asylum, removed portions of the brain cortex from patients experiencing auditory hallucinations and other symptoms of mental illness. This procedure provided preliminary evidence that surgical brain manipulation could calm patients (symptoms later defined medically as schizophrenia). Six patients underwent the surgery done by Burkhardt, who had the explicit goal of calming them rather than restoring their sanity. Following the procedure, one of Burkhardt’s patients passed away, while another later committed suicide (though it is unclear whether the suicide was associated with the surgery). However, after the surgery, several of the patients were simpler to handle. The work of German biologist Friedrich Goltz, who used brain ablation (surgical removal of tissue) tests on dogs and noticed different behavioural alterations in the animals, had impacted his conception of the surgery. There were few attempts to surgically alter the human brain in the years that followed Burkhardt’s research.
Are lobotomies still performed today?
Lobotomies are no longer performed today. The procedure was developed in the 1930s and 1940s and was widely used in the 1940s and 1950s as a treatment for mental disorders such as schizophrenia and depression. However, as knowledge about the brain and mental health increased, it became clear that lobotomies were not effective and caused significant harm, including permanent brain damage. The procedure fell out of use in the 1960s and is now considered to be inhumane and unethical. There are now safer and more effective treatments available for mental disorders.
Why did they stop doing lobotomies?
Lobotomies fell out of use in the 1960s for several reasons.
- Lack of effectiveness: Lobotomies did not prove to be an effective treatment for mental disorders such as schizophrenia and depression. Studies showed that patients who underwent lobotomies often experienced little or no improvement in their symptoms and sometimes suffered severe side effects.
- Advancements in psychiatry: The development of new drugs such as antidepressants and antipsychotics, as well as the increasing understanding of the brain and mental disorders, led to more effective and safer treatment options for mental illness.
- Ethical concerns: Lobotomies were found to cause significant harm and permanent brain damage, and were seen as inhumane. The procedure was associated with a high risk of death and other serious complications.
- Criticism from the medical community: Many psychiatrists and neurosurgeons criticized lobotomies as ineffective and dangerous. They also pointed out that lobotomies were often used as a way to control difficult patients rather than to treat their underlying disorders.
Due to all these reasons lobotomies were phased out and not used anymore.
Lobotomies in the U.S.
The surgical technique known as a lobotomy, sometimes known as a prefrontal leukotomy, involves severing the nerve pathways in one or more brain lobes from those in other regions. For severely disturbed individuals with schizophrenia, manic depression and mania (bipolar disorder), and other mental diseases, the treatment was once employed as a radical therapeutic measure.
In the late 1880s, Swiss physician Gottlieb Burkhardt, who oversaw an insane asylum, removed portions of the brain cortex from patients experiencing auditory hallucinations and other symptoms of mental illness. This procedure provided preliminary evidence that surgical brain manipulation could calm patients (symptoms later defined medically as schizophrenia). Six patients underwent the surgery done by Burkhardt, who had the explicit goal of calming them rather than restoring their sanity. Following the procedure, one of Burkhardt’s patients passed away, while another later committed suicide (though it is unclear whether the suicide was associated with the surgery). However, after the surgery, several of the patients were simpler to handle. The work of German biologist Friedrich Goltz, who used brain ablation (surgical removal of tissue) tests on dogs and noticed different behavioural alterations in the animals, had impacted his conception of the surgery. There were few attempts to surgically alter the human brain in the years that followed Burkhardt’s research.
Final Words
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, surgeons devised a surgical procedure called a lobotomy to treat mental health issues. It entails severing the frontal lobe’s link to the thalamus.
While some patients with mental problems became calmer after lobotomies, they also regularly underwent severe personality changes, such as indifference and social disinhibition. The method carried very significant health hazards, and doctors occasionally employed it in unethical ways.
FAQs
A lobotomy is a surgical technique in which the nerve connections between a lobe of the brain and other parts are broken.
The use of lobotomies as a radical therapeutic technique to sooth patients with mental diseases including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder is controversial.
The first lobotomy was done in the late 1880s by Swiss physician Gottlieb Burckhardt on patients who had auditory hallucinations and other schizophrenia-related symptoms. Six patients underwent the procedure by Burckhardt; one died a few days later, and another committed suicide.
In the 1940s, lobotomies were widely used, and by the late 1960s, one doctor, Walter J. Freeman II, had conducted more than 3,500 of them. When less drastic mental health therapies like antidepressants and antipsychotics became popular in the mid-1950s, the practise fell out of favour. Today, they are hardly ever but infrequently utilised. Study more.
Reduced stress or agitation is the desired outcome of a lobotomy, and many early patients did show those changes. However, many also displayed other negative consequences, including a generalised decline in the depth and intensity of their emotional response to life, as well as indifference, laziness, a lack of initiative, poor concentration, and other traits. The surgery resulted in some deaths.
