[Last resort? Some incidents in the history of psychosurgery in Denmark].

Abstract

In 1935 psychosurgery was invented in Portugal by Egas Moniz. A few years later the new therapy for psychiatric patients were introduced and widely used in Danish mental hospitals. Why did Danish psychiatrists utilize an uncertain and unsafe treatment, and what conditions contributed to the extensive use of psychosurgery in Denmark? To answer these questions, this article focuses on the large archives from the Directorate of the State Mental Hospitals and various mental hospitals in order to investigate the negotiations regarding psychosurgery. Especially the case notes from the State Mental Hospital in Vordingborg, a hospital with 850 beds in southern Zealand, give an insight into the doctors' considerations, when they contemplated on using psychosurgery. In the archive in Vordingborg 336 patient records from lobotomized patients have been found and subjected to statistical analysis in this article. The analysis of the patient records from Vordingborg and other state mental hospitals shows that the practise of lobotomy was a complex matter, and a number of different factors played a part in the wide use of the therapy in Denmark. Especially the dire conditions of the mental hospitals in the 1940s and 1950s made doctors consider psychosurgery a solution for the many patients living a miserable life in the back wards of the hospitals. Patients, who had spent years of their lives in the hospital's "disturbed wards", were particularly exposed to psychosurgery. In the patients records the most common indications for psychosurgery were "unruly" and "aggressive" behaviour, but other factors such as the patient's lengths of stay in the hospital, patients racked with pain, and lack of response to other somatic treatments could also prompt psychiatrists to employ lobotomy.