Abstract
Psychosurgery, despite its controversial beginnings, has nowadays reached a high level of both precision and safety. This has occurred due to advances in scientific methodology and technological improvements and the implementation of modern imaging modalities, stereotactic surgery, and deep brain stimulation devices. Psychosurgical treatment of aggressive disorders has been attempted by lesioning or stimulating certain deep brain structures – including the amygdala and hypothalamus regions. In recent years stimulation of the nucleus accumbens, a basal nucleus involved in the regulation of impulses and the reward system, has been found to have promising results in the psychosurgical treatment of aggression.
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Abbreviations
- ALIC:
-
Anterior limb of the internal capsule
- CNS:
-
Central nervous system
- CT:
-
Computed tomography
- DBS:
-
Deep brain stimulation
- DTI:
-
Diffusion tensor imaging
- fMRI:
-
Functional MRI
- GABA:
-
Gamma-aminobutyric acid
- GPi:
-
Globus pallidus internus
- MOAS:
-
Modified Overt Aggression Scale
- MRI:
-
Magnetic resonance imaging
- MSNs:
-
Medium spiny neurons
- NAc:
-
Nucleus accumbens
- OCD:
-
Obsessive-compulsive disorder
- PET:
-
Positron emissive tomography
- PMH:
-
Posterior medial hypothalamus
- SPECT:
-
Single-photon emission computed tomography
- STN:
-
Subthalamic nucleus
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Hoppe, S., Harat, M. (2023). Treating Aggression. In: Martin, C.R., Preedy, V.R., Patel, V.B. (eds) Handbook of Anger, Aggression, and Violence. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31547-3_104
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31547-3_104
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