When Was Frontal Lobotomy Invented?

Frontal lobotomy was developed in the 1930s for the treatment of mental illness and to solve the pressing problem of overcrowding in mental institutions in an era when no other forms of effective treatment were available.

When did frontal lobotomies stop?

Lobotomies were performed on a wide scale in the 1940s, with one doctor, Walter J. Freeman II, performing more than 3,500 by the late 1960s. The practice fell out of favour in the mid-1950s, when less extreme mental health treatments like antidepressants and antipsychotics came into use.

Who invented frontal lobotomy?

The pioneer in this particular field, Portuguese doctor António Egas Moniz, introduced the infamous frontal lobotomy for refractory cases of psychosis, winning for himself the Nobel Prize for a “ technique that just possibly came too soon for the technology and medical philosophy of its own epoch.”