Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-hgkh8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-29T02:00:40.240Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Suicidal Head Injuries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2018

Eric Guttmann*
Affiliation:
From the Nuffield Department of Surgery, Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford; and the Military Hospital (Head Injuries)

Extract

Damage to the frontal lobe is liable to produce personality changes; it is highly probable that lesions have to be bilateral to have this effect. But beyond that, there is little agreement about type, extent and localization within the frontal lobe of the lesions which are followed by personality change. Little is known about the different types of clinical picture caused by bilateral frontal lesions. In a certain proportion of the cases euphoria is the most impressive symptom, and it is for this reason that operations on the frontal lobes have been proposed in the treatment of depressions. (Lit., see Hutton.) The value of the procedure is still under discussion, and its theoretical foundation is far from being understood. This is not surprising, for if one tries to analyse such an operation, one has to take into account at least four variables: the patient's previous personality, his mental illness, the psycho-physiological effect of the lesion, and the psychological effect of operation, nursing care and environmental changes. The cerebral factor is obviously the most interesting one; to judge its importance one tends to interpret the operative results in the light of experience after other frontal operations or injuries.

Type
Part I.—Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1943 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Guttmann, E. (1931), Nervenarzt., 4, 207.Google Scholar
Hutton, L. (1941), Lancet, 2, 3.Google Scholar
Kleist, K. (1922–1934), Hirnpathologic, Leipzig.Google Scholar
Lebensohn, Z. M. (1941), Amer. J. Psychiat., 98, 56.Google Scholar
Welt, (1888), Arch. klin. Med., 42, 1.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.