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A Comparative Review of Patients with Obsessional Neurosis and with Depression Treated by Psychosurgery

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

P. K. Bridges ,
E. O. Goktepe ,
J. Maratos ,
Anne Browne  and
Lucy Young
P. K. Bridges
Affiliation:
The Geoffrey Knight Psychosurgery Unit, Regional Neurosurgical Centre, Brook General Hospital Shooters Hill Road, London, SE18 4LW
E. O. Goktepe
Affiliation:
The Geoffrey Knight Psychosurgery Unit, Regional Neurosurgical Centre, Brook General Hospital Shooters Hill Road, London, SE18 4LW
J. Maratos
Affiliation:
The Geoffrey Knight Psychosurgery Unit, Regional Neurosurgical Centre, Brook General Hospital Shooters Hill Road, London, SE18 4LW
Anne Browne
Affiliation:
The Geoffrey Knight Psychosurgery Unit, Regional Neurosurgical Centre, Brook General Hospital Shooters Hill Road, London, SE18 4LW
Lucy Young
Affiliation:
The Geoffrey Knight Psychosurgery Unit, Regional Neurosurgical Centre, Brook General Hospital Shooters Hill Road, London, SE18 4LW
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Extract

Obsessional neurosis can be more resistant to treatment, and sometimes even to amelioration, than almost any other form of psychiatric illness. Pollitt (1969) has pointed out that, ‘true obsessional states are among the few illnesses that can still torture patients almost for a lifetime’, and other reports have shown that a generally bad prognosis is to be expected among such patients (Kringlen, 1965; Templer, 1972). As a means of helping patients with obsessional illnesses, various types of psychosurgical operation have been attempted (Lewin, 1961; Knight, 1964; Post, Rees and Schurr, 1968; Knight, 1969). In this paper we present a detailed review of a series of patients who had undergone stereotactic psychosurgical operations for these conditions, in order to assess the value of this method of treatment and also to attempt to identify factors which might have prognostic significance. Some of the patients reviewed had also had second operations of other types.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 123 , Issue 577 , December 1973 , pp. 663 - 674
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1973 

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