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The Columbia-Greystone study was designed as a pilot investigation for the purpose of answering the question whether a less drastic neurosurgical approach, topectomy, with bilateral removal of one frontal area or a combination of frontal areas, might yield results comparable to or better than lobotomy in psychotic patients and, possibly, of learning more at the same time of these areas of the frontal lobe and their functions.
Of the 48 patients studied, 24 were operated on and 24 were used as controls. The studies made included medical, psychologic, psychiatric and neurologic tests. Follow-up studies were carried out on both groups at the end of three months and one year. Physiologic effects remaining at the end of one year included persistence of convulsions (1 case), a suggestion of decreased sensitivity to pain, increased distractability and sensitivity to external stimuli, paralytic phenomena (3 cases), dysarthria and dysphasia (1 case) and temporary paralysis