Children as young as 7 years old were lobotomized in Sweden and many people were subjected to the controversial surgery without relatives' permission, according to a new report.
Some 4,500 people - twice as many as previously reported - were lobotomized in Sweden from 1944 to 1963, said the study, conducted by state SVT television. The report was synopsized Sunday by the Swedish news agency TT.The report is the latest to show a dark side to Sweden's widely admired medical and social services network. Last year, the country squirmed under international media attention after reports that some 60,000 people were involuntarily sterilized from 1935 to 1976.
In a lobotomy, the frontal lobes of a patient's brain are severed from the rest of the brain in an effort to relieve mental disorders. It was widely used in many countries in previous decades.
The operation leaves patients moderately functional but erases much of their emotional life.
Martha Strombladh, whose husband was lobotomized in 1963, said the operation left him seriously impaired.
"They have taken everything from him: emotional life, sexuality. And they have taken him from me and the children. . . . Who could believe that our lives would be like this - in Sweden?" TT quoted her as saying.
Strombladh's husband was lobotomized because he suffered from schizophrenia, but the operation also was performed on some 500 people who were not psychiatric patients, including some developmentally impaired children, according to the report.