Quantitative evaluation of operative procedures

Abstract

After 40 years of psychosurgery, some agreement on the matter of its efficacy might reasonably be expected. It is clear, however, that no such consensus exists. While several factors have contributed to the continuing controversy surrounding psychosurgery (many of these will be discussed in later chapters), the equivocal nature of psychosurgical data is surely of crucial importance. In the absence of adequately controlled and evaluated studies, contention is inevitable. As The British Medical Journal (1971) observed:

Prefrontal leucotomy is a subject on which opinions are divergent and firmly held. The divergence is not surprising in view of the lack of knowledge. It is an astonishing fact that in the 25-year history of leucotomy, during which more than 100000 patients must have been operated on, no prospective controlled trial has been carried out to compare its effectiveness with non-surgical treatment, (p. 595)