When was the last frontal lobotomy performed

Many in the medical community consider lobotomies barbaric by today's standards, but there was a time when the procedure was an accepted treatment for those suffering from severe mental illness. Throughout the s, '40s and most of the '50s, the main route of treatment for most of these patients was to keep them institutionalized in often filthy, deplorable conditions until they got better on their own.

Many remained for years, even decades. Then came the lobotomy. It was first performed in in Portugal by Dr. Egas Moniz, who later would win the Nobel Prize in physiology and medicine for the technique. Neurologist Walter J. Freeman quickly brought the lobotomy to the United States, first performing it in Robert Lichtenstein, a neurosurgeon who performed lobotomies for treatment of severe pain.

Lobotomy was a welcome treatment based on the premise that symptoms of mental illness were caused by faulty connections between the frontal lobes and another part of the brain -- the thalamus. The idea was that severing those connections and regrowing them could treat symptoms of the mental illness.

At the time, it was practically the only effective treatment for severe depression, schizophrenia, suicidal tendencies and other mental disorders. Over the years, lobotomies were done on about 40, to 50, people in the United States in mental institutions and hospitals, El-Hai says. About 10, of those procedures were transorbital or "ice pick" lobotomies, as Freeman himself referred to the procedure. Doctors used a long, ice pick-like device inserted above the eye through the thin layer of bone, penetrating into the brain's frontal lobe.

Freeman performed about 3, transorbital lobotomies himself, according to El-Hai; many others were done by psychiatrists trained by Freeman as he traveled across the country. While the older, far more invasive prefrontal lobotomy involved anesthesia, then drilling into the skull, the transorbital lobotomy was performed in 10 minutes without any major incisions.

According to El-Hai, Freeman performed an all-time high of 24 lobotomies in one day in West Virginia. According to estimates in Freeman's records, about a third of the lobotomies were considered successful.

One of those was performed on Ann Krubsack, who is now in her 70s. What have you heard about lobotomies? Are you surprised by the history of the procedure? Photo by frostnova , available under a Creative Commons attribution license. Somatic experiencing may help you treat trauma-related symptoms.

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The response to our feelings may depend on our phys. Twelve-year-old Howard Dully was forced to have a lobotomy because, as his stepmother insisted, he was "defiant, daydreamed and even objected to going to bed". In other words, he was a typical year-old. He was taken to several doctors who all concluded that Howard was "just normal". But his stepmother took him to Freeman who suggested the boy undergo a lobotomy. Freeman wrote in his diary about Howard in November: "I explained to Mrs Dully that the family should consider the possibility of changing Howard's personality by means of transorbital lobotomy.

Mrs Dully said it was up to her husband, that I would have to talk with him and make it stick. December: "Mr and Mrs Dully have apparently decided to have Howard operated on. I suggested they not tell Howard anything about it. January 4, , following the year-old's lobotomy: "I told Howard what I'd done to him … and he took it without a quiver.

He sits quietly, grinning most of the time and offering nothing. Howard told America's National Public Radio in , when he was 56, that he's always felt different and wondered if there was something missing from his soul. According to medical historian Dr Lindsey Fitzharris, Rosemary was said to be a rebellious child who experienced the occasional mood swings. In November , her father took her to see Freeman who was, by then, famous.

Freeman performed the operation right then and there on Rosemary, without her mother's knowledge," Dr Fitzharris said. Rosemary could no longer speak, and her mental capacity was equivalent to that of a toddler. Rosemary never did recover her ability to speak coherently and remained in care until her death in at the age of She was the first of her siblings to die of natural causes. Rosemary's mother Rose Kennedy was said to be absolutely devastated and saw her daughter's lobotomy as the first of the family's many tragedies.

Interesting note: 80 per cent of the lobotomies performed in the US in the early years were carried out on women. Freeman's icepick lobotomies were in such high demand he took the "show" on to the road, taking his icepick and hammer on tour.

He visited hundreds of hospital and mental institutions. He eventually retired the lobotomobile and opened a private practice in California. Contrary to popular belief, he never lost his license. His van was later known as 'the lobotomobile'. Many of his patients had to relearn how to eat and use the bathroom. Some never recovered," Dr Fitzharris said. In , one of his patients died when Freeman suddenly stopped to pose for a photo during the procedure.

The surgical instrument slipped and went too far into the patient's brain. Many others fell victim to a similar fate at the good doctor's hands. By the s, several countries had banned the procedure altogether, including Russia which banned lobotomies as being "inhumane". Between and it's believed up to 50, lobotomies had been performed around the world. Why were lobotomies so popular?