Summary
The history of psychosurgery in Russia can be divided into 3 periods: The first period starts at the turn of the century under the initiative of Bekhterev. His pupil and one of the fathers of Russian neurosurgery Puusepp performed leucotomy-like cuttings of frontal association fibers in manic-depressive cases and psychic equivalents of epileptics as early as 1906–1910.
The second period includes the time from the late 1930ies till the late 1940ies. The classical leucotomy of Moniz and Lima, with some modifications, was used for treatment of schizophrenia and severe pain. In 1950 psychosurgery was prohibited by the special order of the Minister of Health of the USSR for ideological reasons. The third period starts in the early 1980ies with the acceptance of modern stereotactic techniques for treatment of intractable pain and obsessive-compulsive disorders.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ambrumova AG (1960) The influence of prefrontal leukotomy on the clinic course of schizophrenic process (long-term follow-up study). J Neuropatologii i Psychiatrii 60: 1193–1197 (Russian)
Arkhangelsky GV: Personal communication
Babtchin IS, Golant RY, Iontov ESet al (1948) Therapeutic effectiveness of bilateral frontal leukotomy in the treatment of mental diseases. In: Third All-Union Congress of Neurologists and Psychiatrists. Abstracts, Moscow, p 133–136 (Russian)
Bekhterev VM, Puusepp LM (1908) Surgery in mental diseases. Obozrenie Psychiatrii, Neurologii i Experimentalnoy Psychologii 4: 208–227 (Russian)
Bondarev VI, Voitynsky EY, Dedov VF (1962) Long-term consequences of prefrontal leukotomy. J Neuropatologii i Psychiatrii 62: 1874–1878 (Russian)
Diering SL, Bell WO (1991) Functional neurosurgery for psychiatric disorders: a historical perspective. Stereotact Funct Neurosurg 57: 175–194
Egorov BG, Shmaryan AS, Snesarev PE,et al (1948) Prefrontal leukotomy in psychiatric clinic. In: Third All-Union Congress of Neurologists and Psychiatrists. Abstracts, Moscow, p 130–133 (Russian)
Egorov BG (1960) Leukotomy. In: Bolshaya meditsinskaya encyclopedia, 2nd Ed, Vol 15. Moscow, pp 683–687 (Russian)
Goldenberg SI (1948) Prefrontal leukotomy in the therapy of schizophrenia. Neuropatologia i Psychiatria 2: 14–25 (Russian)
Kornetov AN (1991) Long-term catamnesis of schizophrenics subjected to prefrontal leukotomy in 1947–1950 (discussion). J Neuropatologii i Psychiatrii 91: 128–129 (Russian)
Order N1003 of the Minister of Health of the USSR (1951). Neuropatologia i Psychiatria 1: 17–18 (Russian)
Puusepp LM (1910) Surgical intervention in the mentally disabled from the ethical and law standpoint. Obozrenie Psychiatrii, Neurologii i Experimentalnoy Psychologii 10–11: 697–698 (Russian)
Pussepp LM (1937) Alcune considerazioni sugli interventi chirurgici nelle mallattie mentali. Gior della r Accad di Med di Torino 100: 3–16 (Ital)
Romodanov AP, Konovalov AN, Kandel EI, Vasin NY (1982) Some problems of modern psychosurgery. J Voprosy Neurochirurgii 1: 3–7 (Russian)
Shakhnovitch AR: Personal communication
Shustin VA, Korzenev AV, Gorsky GD, Vovin RY (1991) Stereotactic cingulotomy in multimodality treatment of schizophrenic case with untreatable obsessive-compulsive disorders. J Neuropatologii i Psychiatrii 91: 92–95 (Russian)
Third All-Union Congress of Neurologistaand Psychiatrists (1950) Proceedings, Moscow, pp 424–437 (Russian)
Vovin RYa, Korzenev AV, Lytkin VM,et al (1991) Evolution of views and modern ideas of neurosurgical treatment of psychiatric disorders. Vestnik Chirurgii 6: 129–132 (Russian)
Vyazemsky NM (1938) Neurosurgery and psychiatry (review of the latest literature). Voprosy Neurochirurgii 4: 110–114 (Russian)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lichterman, B.L. On the history of psychosurgery in Russia. Acta neurochir 125, 1–4 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01401819
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01401819