The continuing evolution of psychiatric neurosurgery

In this article, the authors examine the growth of the discipline of psychiatric surgery from the earliest lesioning procedures to the neuroaugmentative strategies used today. Special attention is paid to the neural circuitry that underlies psychiatric disorders and how surgical manipulation of these circuits might result in the amelioration of the disease state. Also examined is the effect that the technology curve has had on psychiatric surgery with regard to functional imaging and neurosurgical equipment. Finally, the authors use the current state of psychiatric surgery to speculate on some of the future directions that psychiatric neurosurgical procedures might take.