Prefrontal Lobotomies

It is amazing how far we have come in finding medical breakthroughs. I would hate to live in the years where the new medical breakthrough for treating mental disorders and sometimes chronic pain was performing prefrontal lobotomies. A prefrontal lobotomy is a surgery where the prefrontal cortex is disconnected from the rest of the brain. The surgery was done by drilling a hole on one’s head and damaging the prefrontal cortex by cutting its connections to the rest of the cortex. This was said to make patients tamer without impairing their sensations or coordination.

The first lobotomy performed in the United States was by Walter Freeman, an American Physician in 1936. A few other medical researchers had discovered and performed this process before Walter Freeman, but none to the extent that Walter Freeman soon began doing. After Walter Freeman performed his first lobotomy, he was very satisfied with the results that he soon began performing many more. Freeman suggested this procedure for many mental disorders such as psychosis and depression and even for criminality. Between 1939 and 1951, over 18,000 lobotomies were performed in the US. By the 1950s, people started protesting about these procedures due to the fact that “statistics showed roughly a third of lobotomy patients improved, a third stayed the same, and the last third actually got worse.”

 

An interesting case, was that of Rosemary Kennedy, sister of John F. Kennedy. Some of her family members considered her retarded because she was not as bright as other members. Although she was not as bright as others, Rosemary was a normal, fully functioning person. When Rosemary was 23, her father Joseph Kennedy, was told about prefrontal lobotomies. He was advised that it would calm Rosemary, so he gave permission for the lobotomy to be performed on his daughter. After the surgery, “Rosemary was reduced to an infantile mentality that left her incontinent and staring blankly at walls for hours. Her verbal skills were reduced to unintelligible babble.”

This shows that prefrontal lobotomies weren’t such a good idea. It is shocking to read that it had to take thousands and thousands of lobotomies to be performed so that people would start protesting and put an end to these procedures.

Alcoholism

Alcoholism is a big problem in our society today. Alcohol is the most common drug abused because of its easy accessibility and because it is not illegal. Teens seem to abuse it the most. Alcohol is involved in nearly half of all violent deaths involving teens and about 2,000 people die each year in car crashes involving underage drinking. We live in a place where alcohol use is very common. This itself leads to a never ending cycle of alcoholism because genetics influence the likelihood of alcoholism. Therefore, a child who has an alcoholic father has a high chance of becoming an alcoholic also. These people would likely be what is known as Type II or Type B alcoholics. That is they have a more rapid onset usually before age 25 and also usually have close relatives who are alcoholics or have alcohol problems. Studies have shown that sons of alcoholics show less than average intoxication after drinking moderately and that alcohol decreases stress more for sons of alcoholics than for other people. This actually encourages drinking even more for sons of alcoholics which is very bad. Many people believe that alcoholism has no long-term physical or psychological effects but there are quite wrong. In an article I read, it states that there are devastating long term effects on the body such as poor coordination and thiamine deficiency, cardiovascular effects including hypertension, reproductive effects such as impotence and irregular menses, and gastrointestinal problems like pancreatitis. Some of these long-term effects of alcoholism are irreversible and many teens are losing their lives or taking the lives of innocent people because of alcohol related accidents so I believe something should be done to make alcohol less accessible to everyone who abuses it.

Blood-Brain Barrier

It was very interesting to me to learn about the blood-brain barrier. The blood brain barrier is made up of certain cells that form walls on the brain’s blood vessels. This barrier is very important because it is so tightly closed to prevent any unwanted chemicals or viruses from entering the brain. It only allows molecules that are essential for the brain such as water, oxygen, glucose, amino acids, etc, making it almost impossible for anything else to pass. If we think about it, we might say this is a very good thing, but not quite. Although we are protected from many harmful things to our brain, the blood brain barrier prevents many medications to treat life-threatening diseases from reaching the brain. Researchers have for years tried to find a way to get past the blood brain barrier to cure such diseases as brain cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. "The bottom line is, if you can get drugs into the brain, you can cure brain cancer". Researchers have tried different things to get certain drugs in the brain to cure these diseases, such as modifying drugs and using adenosine receptors and haven’t been very successful. As we can see, it is very important to have such a blood brain barrier because it fights to keep us healthy and free of unwanted chemicals but at the same time it is too restricted towards chemicals that it prevents important medicines from entering the brain to cure life-threatening diseases. In my point in life right now, I am glad we have such a barrier because I am healthy due to it but I also think of the people who have brain cancer or Alzheimer’s and would really like further research to finally allow the medicines needed to cure these diseases to go past the blood brain barrier.

Here is a video to explain a little about the blood brain barrier
    

Testing on Animals for Research

This topic was found very interesting to me because of the many different debates as to why animal testing for research should or shouldn't be stopped. I am not against the use of animals for research because of the many benefits for humans and animals that have come from it. Although i am not against it, the different debates make it hard to take a side. In an article i read, i found that not only has animal testing benefited humans, but it has also helped animals. It has helped develop heartworm medicine which has helped many dogs and has also developed several other animal drugs. Without the use of animals in research, vaccines and treatments for life-threatening diseases would have not been developed yet or at all. What i do not agree with, is unethical treatment of animals. Although laws have been developed to prevent animal cruelty, there are scientists who break those laws which is what should be stopped. I read that there are scientists who treat animals with no care at all. They "just jab the needles through their body, keep them in cramped up spaces, with little or no food sometimes." Because of these reasons, it is hard to take a concrete side. I do think it is very important to find cures and treatments for life-threatening diseases which i believe makes it very important for the use of animals in research to continue. What researchers, abolitionists, minimalist, etc, do need to try to stop in my opinion, rather than animal testing, is scientists who practice unethical treatment of animals.