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More lobotomies were performed on women than on men: a 1951 study found that nearly 60% of American lobotomy patients were women, and limited data shows that 74% of lobotomies in Ontario from 1948 to 1952 were performed on female patients. [6] [7] [8] From the 1950s onward, lobotomy began to be abandoned, [9] first in the Soviet Union [10] and ...
Walter Jackson Freeman II (November 14, 1895 – May 31, 1972) was an American physician who specialized in lobotomy. [1] Wanting to simplify lobotomies so that it could be carried out by psychiatrists in psychiatric hospitals, where there were often no operating rooms, surgeons, or anesthesia and limited budgets, Freeman invented a transorbital lobotomy procedure.
Psychosurgery nevertheless went into rapid decline in the 1950s, due to the introduction of new drugs and a growing awareness of the long-term damage caused by the operations, [10] as well as doubts about its efficacy. [1] By the 1970s, the standard or transorbital lobotomy had been replaced with other forms of psychosurgical operations.
In 1949, 5,074 lobotomies were carried out in the United States and by 1951, 18,608 people had undergone the controversial procedure in that country. [63] One of the most famous people to have a lobotomy was the sister of John F. Kennedy , Rosemary Kennedy , who was rendered profoundly intellectually disabled as a result of the surgery.
In Britain in the mid-1950s, about three-quarters of psychosurgical operations were standard pre-frontal leucotomies. By the end of the decade, some 500 operations were carried out every year. The standard operation was on its way out, but still accounted for about one-fifth of operations. [15]
During the 1950s the number of operations declined by more than half, in spite of the fact that Moniz had received a Nobel Prize for psychosurgery in 1949. Reasons for this decline included increasing concern about the deaths and damage caused by the operation, the introduction of neuroleptic drugs, and changing ideas about the nature and ...
In 1946, the PA Department of Welfare had to step in and Dixmont became a state-owned hospital. During this time, the hospital began using previously decried procedures such as lobotomies, electro-shock therapy, and use of restraints. By the mid-1970s, Dixmont had reached financial crisis due to the state's desire to shut down the hospital.
Originally named the Oregon Hospital for the Insane, the Oregon State Hospital was active in the fields of electroconvulsive therapy, lobotomies, eugenics, and hydrotherapy. In the mid-twentieth century, the facility experienced significant overcrowding problems, with a peak of nearly 3,600 patients. [3]