Limbic Leucotomy in Self-Mutilation

Letter to the Editor

Sir: The article by Price et al.1 on improvement in selfmutilative behavior following limbic leucotomy is a valuable contribution to the literature on this disabling behavioral syndrome, especially in view of the chronicity and severity of the self-mutilative behaviors so graphically described in their series of 5 cases. However, it seems worthwhile to note that despite some improvement in 4 of the 5 cases, all patients required many months of continuing inpatient care, and in several it appears that hospitalization continues (cases C, D, E), with case D remaining in a locked unit and being allowed to bang her head for 5 minutes out of every hour after her rituals and headbanging returned within 6 months of surgery.