Prevalence
In the United States approximately 40,000 people were lobotomized. In Great Britain 17,000 lobotomies were performed, and the three Nordic countries of Finland, Norway, and Sweden had a combined figure of approximately 9,300 lobotomies. Scandinavian hospitals lobotomized 2.5 times as many people per capita as hospitals in the US. Sweden lobotomized at least 4,500 people between 1944 and 1966, mainly women. This figure includes young children. In Norway there were 2,500 known lobotomies. In Denmark there were 4,500 known lobotomies, mainly young women, as well as mentally retarded children.
By the late 1970s the practice of lobotomy had generally ceased, but some countries continued to use other forms of psychosurgery. In 2001 there were, for example, 70 operations in Belgium, about 15 in the UK and about 15 a year at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, while France had carried out operations on about 5 patients a year in the early 1980s.
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