Psychosurgery in Britain Now

Abstract

Between 1979 and 1986 the number of psychosurgical operations carried out in Britain fell from 70 to 15 procedures annually. There are a number of possible reasons for this change of which increased experience with new regimes of psychotropic medication is perhaps the most important. The new Mental Health Act (1983) which brought psychosurgery under the direct jurisdiction of the law was followed by a sudden reduction in the number of patients treated but referals are now increasing. In current psychiatric practice, classification relies largely on description of syndromes, each characterised by a set of core symptoms. Schizophrenia and affective psychoses (endogenous depression, mania and obsessional illness of late onset) are characterised by disturbances of mood, thinking and perception often so profound as to impair the patient's contact with reality. In contrast, neuroses produce symptoms which are quantitatively, rather than qualitatively different from normal experience and psychosurgery has no place in their treatment. Following the introduction of phenothiazines in the early 1950's schizophrenia ceased to be an indication for psychosurgery. For a small group of severely disabled and distressed people suffering from endogenous depressive and obsessional illnesses, when other treatments have failed or ceased to be effective, psychosurgery remains an appropriate treatment. Just over half the patients treated at the Geoffrey Knight Unit are relieved to the extent that they are either free of symptoms or such symptoms that remain do not significantly impair social function. Following operation recovery is slow and progressive and a programme of rehabilitation is usually necessary. Personality which is often severely damaged by the effects of long illness returns towards normal. Neuropsychiatric evaluation has consistently failed to demonstrate adverse cognitive effects. Evaluation and selection of patients for operation should be done by a psychiatrist and neurosurgeon working in partnership. Stereotactic techniques have made it possible to produce precisely located lesions of consistent size, virtually eliminating side effects and reducing the epileptic risk to between two and three percent. The Mental Health Act, contrary to early expectations, has allowed that psychosurgery retains a place in the treatment of a small highly selected group of patients.

Key Words:

• Psychosurgery
• leucotomy
• psychotic depression
• obsessional neuroses