Posted by OldSchool on January 13, 2002, at 19:17:46
In reply to Psychosurgery in the new millennium » bob, posted by manowar on January 13, 2002, at 18:00:22
> Bob, yes- cigulotomy is one—though seems to be a last resort and I don’t know how effective it is.
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> Electrode implants is another.
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> Its been a while, and being that it's Sunday and I want to watch football- I'm too lazy to try to find the articles on the electrode thing, so I'll do my best with the poor memory I have.
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> This may be and probably is pretty inaccurate, but here goes:
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> I read somewhere that way back after the James Olds findings about wire heading rats (back in the 50's), scientist and doctors began to perform psychosurgery by surgically implanting electrodes in the brains of humans. They experimented on just a few very, very ill patients (Extreme Schizophrenics, Catatonic depressives, etc...). All they did is implant an electrode to a certain area of the brain. The electrode had a wire that lead to like a nine-volt battery that the guy had in his pocket or something. The electrode automatically fired every few seconds or so, causing a cascading of neurotransmitter activity. I think there were some minor complications that were easily dealt with, but for the most part, these patients got better immediately.
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> I think, though, that a law was passed, outlawing this type of surgery. I guess the idea of multitudes of wire headed people repulsed enough doctors that they decided not to go down that road.
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> It is quite spooky, but so what if it works?
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> I also think that doctors can remove just a tiny bit of brain tissue, which completely relives depression. Isn't that basically what cigulotomy is?
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> Cigulotomy could be a very viable option for refractory depressives.
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> If anyone is interested in having this done, check out this website:
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> http://neurosurgery.mgh.harvard.edu/
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> Here is an article from the Harvard site:
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> **********************************************
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> Surgical intervention to treat a psychiatric illness
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> by G. Rees Cosgrove, M.D., F.R.C.S. (C.)
> Neurosurgical Service
> Massachusetts General Hospital
>No old style psychosurgery for me, thank you. Id rather be a catatonic depressed bum on the street, eating out of garbage cans than have an old style psychosurgery. F*ck that. That is WAY too invasive for me. I prefer this modern stuff, like the SPECT scans. Thats why functional neuroimaging is so great...its totally noninvasive and very safe. It uses remote sensing technology to image the function of your brain and improve diagnosing.
Psychosurgery like you are talking about while it may get rid of your depression (for a while) that kind of psychosurgery also permanently changes your personality. Cingulobotomy is just a variation on a theme of the old frontal lobotomy.
WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO MESS WITH THAT?!!!?
Now some of these newer psychosurgeries like Deep Brain Stimulation are a totally different story. I can go with these modern, high tech psychosurgeries. DBS is considered to be a "MIBS" treatment for refractory depression. MIBS stands for "Minimally Invasive Brain Stimulation." The whole point of it is that its high tech and minimally invasive to your brain and body. But it gets the job done.
Thats the kind of stuff I like. The old style "psychosurgery" you can have that. NO THANK YOU.
Here is a website that talks about MIBS modalities for refractory depression:
http://www.musc.edu/psychiatry/fnrd/tms.htm
Old School
poster:OldSchool
thread:88953
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020110/msgs/90010.html