Prefrontal Lobotomy: Stepping-Stone or Pitfall?
J. M.C. HOLDEN M.D., D.P.M.1,
T. M. ITIL M.D.2, , and
L. HOFSTATTER M.D.3
1 Associate professor, department of psychiatry, Missouri Institute of Psychiatry, University of Missouri School of Medicine, 5400 Arsenal St., St. Louis, Mo. 63139, physician superintendent of the St. Louis State Hospital Complex
2 Professor, department of psychiatry, Missouri Institute of Psychiatry, University of Missouri School of Medicine, 5400 Arsenal St., St. Louis, Mo. 63139
3 Medical director and associate professor, department of psychiatry, Missouri Institute of Psychiatry, University of Missouri School of Medicine, 5400 Arsenal St., St. Louis, Mo. 63139
The standard prefrontal lobotomy operation was introduced as a treatment for mental illness in 1935. Although many patients benefited from it, the neurological and psychiatric side effects often proved more disabling than the psychiatric illness itself. However, the introduction of the operation encouraged scientists to investigate the functions of the various areas of man's frontal lobes in greater detail and stimulated other workers to develop modified operative procedures. The authors discuss some of the advances made in both these areas in recent years and emphasize the continuing importance of the inferomedial lobotomy operation in psychiatric treatment.
