Prefrontal lobotomies for psychiatric illness were last performed in the 1950's. Approximately 40 patients who had dorsolateral prefrontal lobotomies remain on the patient rolls at St. Elizabeths Hospital. The long-term effects of prefrontal lobotomy and the overall outcome of the patients is not clearly known. Techniques ar now available to study anatomic, clinical and physiological aspects of lobotomy patients. These include computerized tomography scanning (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and cerebral blood flow (CBF) examination. Neurological, psychiatric, and psychological evaluation of these patients in correlation with the above examination compared to age and diagnosis-matched non- lobotomized patients and to age-matched normals, will give information on both the effects of prefrontal lobotomy and on the function of prefrontal cortex.
NIH ExPorter
NIH ExPorter