The purpose of<unk>  is to reduce the symptoms of mental disorder, and it was recognised that with standard pre-frontal leucotomies this was accomplished at the expense of a person's personality and intellect. British psychiatrist Maurice Partridge, who conducted a follow-up study of 300 patients who had undergone pre-frontal leucotomy, said that the treatment achieved its effects by "reducing the complexity of psychic life". The operation left people with a restricted intellectual range; spontaneity, responsiveness, self-awareness and self-control were reduced, and activity was replaced by inertia. The degree to which people were damaged by these early operations varied greatly. A few people managed to return to responsible work, while at the other extreme people were left with severe and disabling impairments. Most people fell into an intermediate group, left with some improvement of their symptoms but also with emotional and intellectual deficits to which they had to adjust, for better or worse. On average, there was a mortality of rate of approximately 5 per cent during the 1940s. Freeman coined the term "surgically induced childhood" and used it constantly to refer the results of lobotomy. The operation left people with an "infantile personality"; a period of maturation would then, according to Freeman, lead to recovery. In an unpublished memoir he described how the "personality of the patient was changed in some way in the hope of rendering him more amenable to the social pressures under which he is supposed to exist". He described one 29-year-old woman as being, following lobotomy, a "smiling, lazy and satisfactory patient with the personality of an oyster" who couldn't remember Freeman's name and endlessly poured coffee from an empty pot. When her parents had difficulty dealing with her behaviour, Freeman advised a system of rewards (ice-cream) and punishment (smacks). The risks of<unk>  have been greatly reduced by modern stereotactic techniques, where more discrete lesions are made in the brain. Adverse effects of capsulotomy and cingulotomy include seizures, fatigue and personality changes. The risk of death or vascular injury is extremely small. Success rates for anterior capsulotomy, anterior cingulotomy, subcaudate tractotomy, and limbic leucotomy in treating depression and OCD have been reported as between 25 and 70 per cent. There remain concerns however about the poor quality of studies and the lack of systematic reviews and meta-analyses.
History of psychosurgery
History of psychotherapy
History of chemical warfare
History of herbalism
History of dental treatments
History of neurology and neurosurgery
History of surgery
History of depression