Psychosurgery is back. But these are not the ice-pick-through-the-eye-socket lobotomies of the past

National Post

a day ago

'This is not an assembly line,' Adams added. 'We're not just going to start lining people up and doing this. This is for treatment-resistant OCD. But wouldn't it be brilliant if we could find something that treated the more moderate forms?'
Unlike the era of Freeman's runaway lobotomies, a major ethical consideration is ensuring informed consent, she and others said. That means ensuring the person's anxiety and mood do not cloud their ability to understand the risks and benefits.
'When I see patients in clinic, they often tell me this is their last resort,' Lipsman said. 'We have to be very careful not to take advantage of our patients' desperation to get better.'
Anya got married last October. She is embarking on her PhD. Surgery wasn't like flicking a switch: OCD, then no OCD. It's been a gradual improvement, but a 'really remarkable' one, she said. The first thing she noticed was an improvement in her mood.
'Before surgery, my mood was super-low, depressed, desperate, suicidal.' Post surgery, 'I started having better days. We could see something was shifting.'
A turning point came when she accepted an invitation to a relative's wedding in Los Angeles two months after surgery. She had been virtually housebound, especially avoiding places that had music. 'That would trigger the earworms.' Weddings have music and dancing. 'That was kind of hard and not something that I would have done some months prior. But I went.'
Later that spring and over the summer, that 'constant intrusive soundtrack' in her brain grew fainter. 'I still get earworms occasionally. I still have this residual thing when I'm really stressed or going through a difficult experience or reducing my medications.
'It can be annoying. But doesn't scare me as much anymore.'
The surgery was on Jan. 28, 2019.
'I celebrate it as my second birthday now.'