2005/12/01 by Kenneth Ögren, Mikael Sandlund · 1 citation
Neuroscience · Psychology · #Neurology and Historical Studies #Historical Psychiatry and Medical Practices #Pain Management and Placebo Effect
paper · doi:10.1080/096470490897692
openalex publication_date 2005/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
“The history of prefrontal lobotomy has been brief and stormy. Its course has been dotted with both violent opposition and with slavish, unquestioning acceptance.” –George Kisker, 1944 in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease “The psychosurgery era seems to me a sad intermission [in the history of psychiatry] which preferably should be left behind in silence.” –Dr. Olof Dagberg in his last annual report, from The Psychiatric Hospital, Stockholm, 1965 This study presents results on hitherto unknown data on lobotomies performed at the former State Mental Hospital of Umedalen (from here on called simply “Umedalen”) in the north of Sweden. More than 700 operations were carried out from 1947 through 1960, and we calculated the average rate of postoperative mortality to 7.4 percent, and that 63 percent of those who were operated were women. By considering annual hospital reports to the National Board of Health (Medicinalstyrelsen), we also made the first mapping of early psychosurgery in Sweden; approximately 4,500 lobotomies were performed between 1944 and 1966. Statistical analysis, qualitative content analysis, and discourse analysis were used. The study supports earlier findings of female preponderance in the number of lobotomy operations.