Lobotomy

A lobotomy (from Greek λοβός (lobos) 'lobe' and τομή (tomē) 'cut, slice') or leucotomy is a discredited form of neurosurgical treatment for psychiatric disorder or neurological disorder (e.g. epilepsy, depression) that involves severing connections in the brain's prefrontal cortex. The surgery severs most of the connections to and from the prefrontal cortex, and the anterior part of the frontal lobes of the brain.

From the 1930s until the 1970s, the treatment was used for handling psychiatric disorders as a mainstream procedure in some countries. A preoccupation with the ability to work and personal responsibility over patient well-being were contributing factors to the prevalence of lobotomies in the United States.

The originator of the procedure, Portuguese neurologist António Egas Moniz, shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine of 1949 for the "discovery of the therapeutic value of leucotomy in certain psychoses", although the awarding of the prize has been subject to controversy.

The procedure was modified and championed by Walter Freeman, who performed the first lobotomy at a mental hospital in the United States in 1936. Its use increased dramatically from the early 1940s and into the 1950s; by 1951, almost 20,000 lobotomies had been performed in the US and proportionally more in the United Kingdom. More lobotomies were performed on women than on men: a 1951 study found that nearly 60% of American lobotomy patients were women, and limited data shows that 74% of lobotomies in Ontario from 1948 to 1952 were performed on female patients. From the 1950s onward, lobotomy began to be abandoned, first in the Soviet Union, where the procedure immediately garnered extensive criticism and was not widely employed, before being banned in December 1950, and then Europe.