Essay On Lobotomies

Words: 687
Pages: 3

It is a sorry subject to those who follow the news that a country as well-endowed as the United States remains unable to solve a mental illness as simple as depression. Imagine seeing children wonder why their mother never leaves her room to play with them anymore then they come home to find her crying on the couch.
Depression has become a widespread problem affecting over 16 million adults in the United States including 10.3 percent of those between the ages of 18 and 25 (“NIMH » Major Depression Among Adults.”). I am sure we can all come to the consensus that we need to implement a solution for this epidemic. I recommend a treatment that would solve not only self-medication and suicide, but also relapse.
Therefore, upon analysis of various
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The twentieth century saw much research into the use of frontal lobotomies to treat mental illnesses. In 1947, this procedure was performed 2000 times, and its creator received a Nobel Prize in 1949 (Hall). With new technologies, lobotomies could be used to effortlessly and entirely remove feeling from a patient preventing them from ever again needing to cope with depression.
Additionally, the first and foremost benefit of using lobotomies as the treatment for depression is as suicide prevention. The suicide rates in the United States have risen to an outrageous three decades high (Tavernise). After undergoing a full lobotomy, an individual becomes incapable of self-harm. Through this, we could protect these poor people from an untimely death at their own hands.
Further, and from an economic standpoint, substance abuse costs the U.S. hundreds of billions of dollars per year which could be lowered by this preventative measure (“Trends & Statistics.”). Lobotomies could drastically lower these costs by curing depressed addicts with no chance of relapse. While putting a bottle in front of a depressed person will save neither the Treasury nor let them truly escape their pain, a frontal lobotomy