leucotomy

Brain operation to sever the connections between the frontal lobe and underlying structures. It was widely used in the 1940s and 1950s to treat severe psychotic or depressive illness. Though it achieved some success, it left patients dull and apathetic; there was also a considerable risk of epilepsy. It was largely replaced by the use of psychotropic drugs from the late 1950s.

Today, a limited amount of psychosurgery is performed in specialist centres under strict controls. It includes the creation of tiny, precise frontal lobe lesions to relieve severe conditions that have not responded to other treatments.

The original prefrontal leucotomy procedure was devised in the 1930s by the Portuguese surgeon A E Moniz (1874-1955), who shared a Nobel Prize 1949 for his work in psychosurgery.