Psychosurgery: some current observations

The term "psychosurgery" encompasses a wide variety of different neurosurgical procedures applied in the treatment of behavioral and psychiatric disorders. Arguments about the effectiveness and ethicality of psychosurgery are often based on studies using outdated procedures or inappropriate patient populations. The debate over psychosurgery is also obscured by the frequent confusion between its use in classical psychiatric syndromes and in such controversial areas as aggression or violent behavior associated with temporal lobe epilepsy. The author believes that such factors need to be clarified so that practitioners can choose a personal position based on sound medical fact.