Selected Quotes from “Back to the Frontal”

Quotes from “Back to the Frontal” by Danielle Egan (Vancouver Magazine - May 2004) regarding psychosurgeries like cingulotomy and capsulotomy. These psychosurgeries have been euphemistically renamed “neurosurgery for mental disorder” (NMD). The fact that they are often done using a stereotactic knife instead of a scalpel makes no difference, as these quotes illustrate. Psychosurgery is still a terrible idea.

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On Dr. Chris Honey, the stereotactic and functional neurosurgeon for British Columbia:

‘… Honey [says he] can see abnormalities in the brain tissue of a patient with Parkinson’s but admits he “can’t see a disturbance” in his depressed patients. And after surgery “their depression doesn’t melt away or anything. With a Parkinsonian patient, their symptoms are gone—boom—on the [operating] table.” ‘

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On Dr. Susanne Bejerot of Sweden’s Karolinska Institute:

‘There are also problems with researcher bias, she points out, leading to wide definitions of “positive outcomes.”

“Examples of side-effects after capsulotomy known to me,” she tells me, “are one man who raped his wife in front of the children—but was defined as a responder as his O.C.D. symptoms had abated—and another ‘successful case’ who stole a bus many years after surgery.” And while Bejerot accedes that “there is no doubt that neurosurgery can dramatically reduce obsessions and compulsions,” she thinks “the question is, at what price?” ‘

Bejerot cites examples of severe personality changes after neurosurgery, such as a man who started making “improper advances to young girls” post-op. She also found that researchers placed people who gained weight (a very common post-op effect) on the positive outcomes list, claiming it showed an ability to “relax and enjoy life.”

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On University of British Columbia psychiatrist and neurologist Dr. Trevor Hurwitz:

“The assumption is that these pathways [that are burned to cause lesions during psychosurgery] carry the circuits that are causing disabling depression and obsessive compulsive disorder. We operate on brain structures that support a dysfunctional mind.” “Psychiatry” he says, “is rediscovering its roots.”

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Psychosurgery.org Comment on the comments:

Yes, psychiatry is returning to its roots, all right.

Please note that Massachusetts General’s psychosurgeons refused comment, though they were invited to do so. They also refused comment on the recent LA Times article. They only comment when the articles lean toward psychosurgery, never against it. They are afraid to confront their critics, I think. Perhaps they need medication for their social anxiety disorder.