Psychosurgery

Psychosurgery is a term for surgeries of the brain or autonomic nervous system involving the severance of neural pathways to effect a change in behaviour, usually to treat or alleviate severe mental illness. The procedures typically considered psychosurgery are now almost universally shunned as inappropriate, due in part to the emergence of less-invasive methods of treatment such as psychiatric medication. Although the term psychosurgery might imply a broad class of treatments, in reality, it is confined to variations on two themes:

References

• Baer, L., et al. (1995). Cingulotomy for intractable obsessive-compulsive disorder. Archives of General Psychiatry, 52, 384-392.
• G. Rees Cosgrove, Scott L. Rauch: "Psychosurgery" Neurosurg. Clin. N. Am. 1995; 6:167-176 online version
• Davison, G. C., & Neale, J. M. (1998) Abnormal Psychology (7th Ed.). New York, John Wiley.
• Pohjavaara P, Telaranta T, Vaisanen E. The role of the sympathetic nervous system in anxiety: Is it possible to relieve anxiety with endoscopic sympathetic block? Nord J Psychiatry 2003;57:55-60. PMID 12745792.
• Renato M.E. Sabbatini: The History of Psychosurgery. Brain & Mind, September 1997.
• Pohjavaara P (2004): "Social Phobia, Etiology, Course and Treatment with Endoscopic Sympathetic Blockade (ESB)" http://herkules.oulu.fi/isbn9514274571/isbn9514274571.pdf