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The Effects of Hypophysectomy on Intellectual Functioning^*

The Section of Research Psychiatry Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research and the Neuropsychiatric Service Memorial Hospital, Memorial Center for Cancer and Allied Diseases, New York, N. Y.

^* This study was supported by research grant M-884 (C2) from the National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Public Health Service. The writer wishes to express her gratitude to Dr. Arthur M. Sutherland, Dr. Olof H. Pearson and Dr. Mortimer B. Lipsett of Memorial Center for Cancer and Allied Diseases for suggesting this study and for making the subjects available to this investigator.

ABSTRACT

1. The intellectual functioning of twenty white female patients, suffering from metastatic breast cancer, who underwent hypophysectomy as a therapeutic measure to check the progress of the disease, were studied pre- and post-operatively.
   
2. It was hypothesized that hypophysectomy will have no effect on the intellectual functioning of the individuals under study and that no brain damage will occur as a result of this surgery.
   
3. No statistically significant change in general intellectual functioning and no brain damage, as measured by the tests, could be noted post-hypophysectomy. Thus, the hypothesis was confirmed.
   
4. An increase in accuracy, possibly as a result of a post-operative improvement in health or due to the practice effect involved in re-testing, and a decrease of speed, probably related to a secondary hypothyroidism because of a deficiency of pituitary hormones, could be noted.