10/3 podcast: Psychosurgery is back — but this isn’t your grandfather’s lobotomy

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The notion of using surgery to address chronic mental health concerns can conjure up some pretty frightening images of days gone by, when practitioners would use crude methods to remove or alter parts of people’s brains.

But new technology and techniques have allowed surgeons the opportunity to more precisely target areas thought to play a role in conditions such as OCD.

But is it safe, or any less worrisome than lobotomies of the past?

National Post health reporter Sharon Kirkey joins Dave Breakenridge to discuss the history of psychosurgery, how new technologies have brought new approaches and whether the same ethical dilemmas remain.

Background reading:   Psychosurgery is back. But these are not the ice-pick-through-the-eye-socket lobotomies of the past

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