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Psychosurgery and the Mental Health Act Commission

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Paul K. Bridges*
Affiliation:
Geoffrey Knight Psychosurgical Unit, Brook General Hospital, London SE18
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It was fully anticipated that the Mental Health Act Commission would take special interest in psychosurgery, and Section 57 is clearly intended to supervise this form of therapy. The Chairman of the Commission, Lord Colville, considerately arranged a visit to our Unit shortly after the implementation of the Act, and this proved to be a most useful meeting. Obviously we were ready to give any help or advice needed, based on our experience of over 1,100 operations carried out over about 20 years. Our world-unique unit has eight beds specifically for the assessment and treatment of patients referred for psychosurgery, although intensive antidepressant medication is sometimes used successfully in order to avoid psychosurgery.

Type
Research Article
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1984

References

1 Bridges, P. K. (1983) ‘… and a small dose of an antidepressant might help’. British Journal of Psychiatry, 142, 626–8.Google Scholar
2 Goktepe, E. O., Young, L. B. & Bridges, P. K. (1975) A further review of the results of stereotactic subcaudate tractotomy. British Journal of Psychiatry, 126, 270–80.Google Scholar
3 Evans, B., Bridges, P. K. & Bartlett, J. R. (1981) Electroencephalographic changes as prognostic indicators after psychosurgery. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 44, 444–7.Google Scholar
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