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What is psychosurgery?

Updated: 5/1/2024
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13y ago

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Psychosurgery involves severing or otherwise disabling areas of the brain to treat a personality disorder, behavior disorder, or other mental illness.

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13y ago
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5d ago

Psychosurgery is a surgical procedure that targets specific areas of the brain in an attempt to treat mental health disorders, such as severe depression or obsessive-compulsive disorder. It is considered a last resort treatment option when other therapies have been unsuccessful, and its use is highly regulated due to ethical and safety concerns.

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What is the definition of a psychosurgery?

Psychosurgery is a surgical procedure that involves altering or removing brain tissue to treat severe mental disorders, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder or depression. It is considered a last resort treatment and is rarely used due to its invasive nature and potential risks.


What are the concerns with psychosurgery?

Much is still unknown about the biology of the brain and how psychosurgery affects brain function.


What are the side effects of psychosurgery?

Psychosurgery is highly invasive and the effects it has on the brain are irreversible. For these reasons, psychosurgery is tightly regulated in the UK. In England and Wales, a panel appointed by the Mental Health Act Commission is required to assess the individuals ability to give full consent to psychosurgery and to weigh up the costs and benefits of the procedure. The risks associated with any brain surgery are damage to blood vessels (possibly resulting in a stroke, although this is very rare), epilepsy and confusion due to the fluid in the tissues. Adverse effects associated specifically with psychosurgery are headaches (which may be severe and last for some days), weight gain and apathy. Personality changes are also reported in some people, however this is considered to be rare. There is no evidence to say that psychosurgery causes intellectual impairment, and some cases, IQ scores have actually increased.


What are the advantages and disadvantages of psychosurgery?

Advantages: - Psychosurgery may work for patients with persistent and severe depression and OCD (Obsessive- Compulsive Disorder), where other techniques have failed. - It made the patients more manageable. Disadvantages: - It's got questionable effectiveness. - It only made schizophrenic patients more manageable, it didn't do anything to treat the symptoms or the cause of the disorder


When is psychosurgery used?

some patients with severe cases of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) have been helped by an operation on a part of the brain that is involved in OCD.


How is psychosurgery performed?

neurosurgeons use a computer-based process called stereotactic magnetic resonance imaging to guide a small electrode to the limbic system


Can psychosurgery be an alternative to death penalty?

There is no definitive answer to this question so I will venture my OPINION. I seriously doubt it. (in the US) the ACLU would have a field day with that suggestion - cruel and unusual punishment.


Is lobotomy legal in Victoria?

Yes, though the standards in Victoria for the use of psychosurgery are quite high (usually requiring medical board approval) and the number of neuro-surgeons qualified to perform it are low.


In One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest what part of the brain was removed?

The prefrontal cortex of the frontal lobes of the brain are removed or deprived of blood in a "lobotomy" (leucotomy) a once widely-used form of psychosurgery on violent mentally-ill patients. Because the lobe is the major center of voluntary action, a lobotomy can render a person incapable of intellectual thought. Many are reduced to the level of idiocy, able only to do the simplest activities.


What is the medical model in psychology?

The medical model in psychology views mental health conditions as similar to physical illnesses, emphasizing diagnosis, treatment, and cure. It often focuses on symptoms and pathology, with an aim to identify specific disorders and provide interventions to alleviate symptoms. This approach is criticized for sometimes oversimplifying complex mental health issues and neglecting personal and environmental factors.


What is the treatment for schizophrenia?

Schizophrenia is treated by medication, especially antipsychotics. It is also treated by therapy, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy. Methods of treating schizophrenia that are now out of use include psychosurgery and electroshock therapy.


What is a lobotomy what is it for and why did they give randall p macmurphy one in the movie one flew over the cuckoo's nest?

a neurosurgical procedure, a form of psychosurgery, also known as a leukotomy or leucotomy (from Greek leukos: clear or white and tomos meaning "cut/slice"). It consists of cutting the connections to and from the prefrontal cortex. Lobotomies have now fallen out of use, as doctors use various drugs and psychological therapies to treat mental illnesses. Lobotomies were used mainly from the 1930s to 1950s to treat a wide range of severe disorders, including schizophrenia, clinical depression, and various anxiety disorders, as well as people who were considered a nuisance by demonstrating behavior characterized as, for example, "moodiness" or "youthful defiance". The patient's informed consent in the modern sense was often not obtained. After the introduction of the antipsychotic chlorpromazine (Thorazine), lobotomies fell out of common use and the procedure has since been characterized "as one of the most barbaric mistakes ever perpetrated by mainstream medicine".A damning portrayal of the procedure is found in Ken Kesey's 1962 novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and its 1975 movie adaptation. Several patients in the mental ward receive lobotomies in order to discipline or calm them. The operation is described as brutal and abusive, a "frontal-lobe castration." The book's narrator, Chief Bromden, is shocked: "There's nothin' in the face. Just like one of those store dummies." One patient's surgery changes him from an acute to a chronic mental condition. "You can see by his eyes how they burned him out over there; his eyes are all smoked up and gray and deserted inside."Taken from Wikipedia