Ethics in psychosurgery.

Ethical problems of psychosurgery are debated since 1970s. The issues of informed consent, political and commercial abuses, lacking evidence and needed regulation are overviewed. New surgical techniques provoke new discussions on goals and limits of psychosurgery.

Cross-sectional representations of the central nervous system in Pirogov's ".

Russian surgeon Nikolay Ivanovich Pirogov (Pirogoff; 1810-1881) introduced the teaching of applied topographical anatomy in Russia. Pirogov's monumental four-part atlas, (), colloquially known as the "," was published in Latin in the 1850s. Pirogov sought to investigate "the normal and pathological positions of different organs and body parts using sections made in the three principal directions [anatomical planes] … throughout all regions.

A comparative history of psychosurgery.

The term "psychosurgery" reflecting neurosurgical treatment of mental disorders, was coined by a Portuguese neurologist Egas Moniz (1874-1955), who, in 1935, suggested a procedure named prefrontal leucotomy (or lobotomy) aimed to divide white matter tracts connecting prefrontal cortex and thalamus. Starting from 1936, this technique and its subsequent modification (transorbital lobotomy) was zealously promoted by a neurologist Walter Freeman (1895-1972) and a neurosurgeon James Watts (1904-1994) at George Washington University, who in 1942 summarized their experience in a monograph, which publication resulted in a tremendous worldwide interest in psychosurgical interventions. The present review describes comparative development of prefrontal leucotomy followed by stereotactic ablation and neurostimulation in three different geographical regions: USA, USSR/Russia, and Far East (China and Japan), where psychosurgery followed nearly similar courses, progressing from the initial enthusiasm and high clinical caseloads to nearly complete disregard.

Between Moscow and Berlin: The Russian connections behind Flatau's "Law of Eccentric Location of Long Pathways in Spinal Cord".

The origins of Edward Flatau's "The Law of Eccentric Location of Long Pathways in Spinal Cord" are discussed, considering newly examined archival documents from Central State Archive of Moscow and Museum of the I. M. Sechenov University (former medical faculty of Imperial Moscow University [IMU]).

On the classification of cerebral tumors: A tribute to Leonid Smirnov.

The corresponding member of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR Professor Leonid Iosifovich Smirnov (1889 - 1955) authored several dozen publications on neuropathology of infections, schizophrenia, cerebral injuries, and brain tumors. Based on his study of pathology of gunshot head injuries during World War II he suggested a doctrine of traumatic on traumatic brain disease. He was the author of the first Russian classification of cerebral tumors and had an impact on the development of neurooncology in the former USSR.

The impact of the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental-health services in Europe.

Purpose: The current COVID-19 pandemic confronts psychiatric patients and mental health services with unique and severe challenges.

Methods: In order to identify these trans-national challenges across Europe, an survey was conducted among 23 experts, each answering for one European or aligned country.

Results: A number of important themes and issues were raised for the impact of COVID-19 on mental health and mental health services, barriers to service provision and future consequences.

From Prussia to Russia: Russian critics of "Aerztliche Ethik".

The aim of this paper is to compare "Zapiski Vracha" ("Confessions of a Physician", first published in 1901) by Vikenty Veresaev to "Aerztliche Ethik" ("Doctors' Ethics", first published in 1902; two Russian editions were published in 1903 and 1904) by Albert Moll. It starts with an overview of medical ethics in Russia at the turn of the 20 century in relation to medicine, followed by reception of Veresaev's "Confessions of a Physician" by Russian and German physicians, and of Moll's "Doctors' Ethics" in Russia. Comparison of these two books may serve as a good example of a search for common philosophical foundations of medical ethics as well as the impact of national cultural traditions.

Combined use of medically-assisted reproductive techniques: a new bioethical issue.

Background And Aim: The studies of Nobel laureate Robert Geoffrey Edwards led to the first in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer in 1978. Since then, reproductive medicine has made huge advances. Methods available to sterile couples now include: purchasing oocytes and sperm, uterus surrogacy, pre-implantation or pre-natal diagnosis, embryo/fetal selection.

A Humanist Neurosurgeon: A Legacy of Dr. Roy Selby.

The article is dedicated to the life and work of Dr. Roy Selby (1930-2002), an American neurosurgeon who founded neurosurgery in Malaysia. Dr.

[Modern approaches to the diagnosis of head injury].

The diagnosis of head injury should be based on certain principles. Each of them is important and has its own history. The authors summarize the experience of treatment of head injury using clinical and neuroimaging methods at the NN Burdenko Neurosurgery Institute (now the NN Burdenko National Research Center for Neurosurgery) for more than 30 years.

The Moscow Colloquium on Electroencephalography of Higher Nervous Activity and its impact on international brain research.

Late 1950s was a period of recognition of Russian neurophysiology by international neuroscience community and vice versa. This process of "opening windows in both directions" might be illustrated by the story of The Moscow Colloquium on Electroencephalography of Higher Nervous Activity. The Colloquium took place on October 6-11, 1958 at the House of Scientists in Moscow.

Emergence and early development of Russian neurosurgery (1890s-1930s).

This paper is a case study of specialization in clinical medicine - it is a story of the difficult and complicated birth of a neurosurgery clinic in Russia and the Soviet Union. It demonstrates the futile attempt to institute a new specialty as surgical neurology advocated by neuro(patho)logist V.M.

Under the shelter of ethics.

Problems of ethics committees in post-communist Russia are briefly discussed. The first ethics committees were established in 1980s upon the initiative of international pharmaceutical companies involved in clinical trials. Generally, such committees exist at hospitals conducting these trials and at research institutions dealing with human experimentation.

Basic problems of medical ethics in Russia in a historical context.

The paper provides a short overview of key problems of medical ethics in the Russian and Soviet contexts--confidentiality, informed consent, human experimentation, abortion, euthanasia, organ and tissue transplantation, abuse of psychiatry. In Soviet ideology common interests were declared superior to private ones. Hence, medical confidentiality was viewed as a bourgeois survival.

Soviet medical ethics (1917-1991).

Russian medical ethics bears a heavy mark of seven decades of the communist regime. In 1918 the Health Care Commissariat (ministry) was formed. It was headed by Nikolai Semashko (1874-1949) who claimed that "the ethics of the Soviet physician is an ethics of our socialist motherland, an ethics of a builder of communist society; it is equal to communist moral".

Medical ethics in Russia before the October revolution (1917).

The evolution of medical ethics in Russia was determined by several factors. First, such Russian concepts as "obshina" (community" and "sobornost" (counciliarism) determined the supremacy of the collective body over the individual body, the state over a person etc. There is no analogue for "privacy" in the Russian language.

Conflict or harmony? Clinical research and the medical press in Russia.

The author relates conditions for conducting clinical trials in Russia, current experiences of ethics committees, areas where conflicts of interest can occur regarding publishing the results of clinical trials in medical journals and the state of medical journalism in Russia today.

Roots and routes of Russian neurosurgery (from surgical neurology towards neurological surgery).

Regular and purposeful neurosurgical interventions started at the end of the nineteenth century. Both surgical and neurological roots of the emerging speciality could be traced. The surgical roots of neurosurgery were the invention of anaesthesia, aseptics and antiseptics which made brain operations relatively safe and markedly reduced postoperative mortality.

Teaching history of medicine at Russian medical schools: past, present, and future.

Teaching history of medicine at Russian medical schools has a long tradition. It always reflected the general political situation in the country. The present program has been approved by the Ministry of Health 10 years ago.