The treatment of mental disorders by means of brain surgery. The first consistent technique for psychosurgery, called lobotomy, consisted of severing fiber tracts between the thalamus and the frontal lobes and was a radical attempt to reduce psychosis, severe depression, or violent behavior in treatment-refractory patients. With the advance of minimally invasive surgical techniques, such as functional stereotactic neurosurgery and radiosurgery, physicians are now able to lesion with high precision much smaller areas of the brain involved in emotional control. These small surgically created lesions have little effect on other intellectual or emotional spheres and may be quite effective in controlling violent behavior caused by intracranial tumors, untreatable severe depression, severe anxiety disorders (including obsessive-compulsive disorder), or chronic pain.
Surgical intervention to sever fibers connecting one part of the brain with another or to remove or to destroy brain tissue with the intent of modifying or altering severe disturbances of behavior, thought content, or mood. Such surgery may also be undertaken for the relief of intractable pain.
An effective, but rarely used or needed method of relieving some nervous or psychomotor symptoms by serving selected nerve pathways within the brain.
Surgery which is done for the purpose of changing the patients personality, thought, emotions or behavior, rather than for the treatment of a physical disease. The term is used irregularly: for instance, sometimes referring to all surgery done on the human brain for whatever purpose.
Brain surgery, used as a treatment for psychological disorders.
Surgery of the brain, usually involving interruption of certain nerve pathways, to relieve severe abnormal psychological symptoms; the procedure is now employed only when other treatments (e.g., psychotherapy and drugs) have proved ineffective. Marked changes in personality and also often in cognitive and other mental processes occur.
Surgery of the brain to relieve psychological symptoms. The operation most commonly performed is leukotomy, but cingulectomy and amygdalectomy are sometimes also used. These are all irreversible treatments and are therefore reserved for the most severe and intractable of symptoms, particularly severe chronic anxiety, depression, and untreatable pain. Side-effects can be severe but are less common with modem selective operations.
This was introduced in 1936 by Egas Moniz, Professor of Medicine in Lisbon University, for the surgical treatment of certain psychoses. For his work in this field he Shated the Nobel Prize in 1949. The original operation, known as leucotomy, consisted of cutting white fibres in the frontal lobe of the brain. It. was accompanied by certain hazards such as persistent epilepsy and undesirable changes in personality; pre-frontal leucotomy is now regarded as obsolete. Modern stereotactic surgery is much more precise in the location of the tissue removed. It may be advised in rare intractable psychiatric illnesses in which the patient is chronically incapacitated, especially where there is a high suicide risk. Patients are only considered for psychosurgery when they have failed to respond to all other therapies. One contraindication is marked histrionic or antisocial personality. Conditions in which a favourable response has been obtained are intractable and chronic obsessional neuroses anxiety states and severe chronic depression.
Surgical intervention for mental disorders, e.g., frontal lobotomy.
In the pursuit of alleviating chronic psychological conditions like obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), depression, and bipolar disorder, a surgical intervention known as brain surgery is conducted. This intricate procedure aims to provide relief by targeting and addressing the underlying neural mechanisms associated with these debilitating psychological ailments.
Surgical procedures involving the brain, conducted as a remedy for severe mental disorders, are employed as a final option when alternative treatments have proven ineffective. The practice of prefrontal lobotomy has largely been supplanted by various forms of stereotaxic surgery.