AGY-5317 | Psychosurgery Review Board

Full description

The Psychosurgery Review Board was first established by the Mental Health Act 1983 on 22 August 1986 to examine and give consent to applications for the performance of psychosurgery. (1) It was re-established under the Mental Health Act 1990 (Act No.9, 1990). (2) The Board also had the role of reviewing patient cases and gathering and recording information for the purpose of advancing research into psychosurgery. (3)

Under the Act, psychosurgery was defined as:
(a) the creation of 1 or more lesions, whether made on the same or separate occasions, in the brain of a person by any surgical technique or procedure, when it is done primarily for the purpose of altering the thoughts, emotions or behaviour of the person; or
(b) the use for such a purpose of intracerebral electrodes to produce such a lesion or lesions, whether on the same or separate occasions; or
(c) the use on 1 or more occasions of intracerebral electrodes primarily for the purpose of influencing or altering the thoughts, emotions or behaviour of a person by stimulation through the electrodes without the production of a lesion in the brain of the person,
but does not include a neurological procedure carried out for the relief of symptoms of Parkinson's disease. (4)

Regulations made under the Mental Health Act prescribed forms that were to be used by applicants and the Board to obtain information and patient consent, to make application to perform psychosurgery and issue summons to produce documents. (5)

The Board was comprised of seven part-time members appointed by the Minister upon the nomination of the appropriate professional associations. The members were:
- a barrister or solicitor appointed by the Minister as President of the Board,
- a neurosurgeon,
- a neurologist or a neuroscientist,
- a clinical psychologist,
- a person nominated by the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, and
- two psychiatrists. (7)

Figures for 1989 to March 1992 indicate that the number of patients undergoing psychosurgery in New South Wales was low with the Review Board advising that, during this period, only seven people received such treatment, for conditions such as severe obsessive compulsive disorder and depression. (8) However, there was a stigma attached to the practice and it had its opponents, likely a legacy of the activities at Chelmsford Private Hospital in the 1970s. (8)

On 16 November 2007, the Mental Health Act 2007 (Act No.8, 2007) repealed the 1990 Act (9). The Psychosurgery Review Board was not re-established under the new Act and psychosurgery was specified as a prohibited treatment. (10) The Mental Health Review Tribunal, which was reconstituted by the 2007 Act, took custody of the Board's records. (11)

Endnotes
1. Mental Health Act 1983 (Act No.178, 1983), s.147 and Sch.5 commenced NSW Government Gazette No.134, 22 August 1986, p.4053.
2. Mental Health Act 1990 (Act No.9, 1990), s.152 and Sch.4 commenced NSW Government Gazette No.82, 29 June 1990, p.5397.
3. Mental Health Act 1990, ss.153, 178.
4. Mental Health Act 1983 (Act No.178, 1983), Sch.5; Mental Health Act 1990 (Act No.9, 1990), Sch.1.
5. Mental Health Act 1990 - Regulation (1990 No.424); NSW Government Gazette No.82, 29 June 1990.
6. Mental Health Act 1990 (Act No.9, 1990), Sch.4(1).
7. Psychosurgery Statistics, NSW Legislative Assembly Questions on Notice, Hansard, 24 June 1992, p. 4352, http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/Prod/parlment/hansart.nsf/0/CA256D11000BD3AA4A25647900831BA3 (accessed 9 February 2016).
8. Richard White "The banning of psychosurgery in NSW" in Australasian Psychiatry, Vol.19 No.2, April 2011, p.179.
9. Mental Health Act 2007 (Act No. 8, 2007), s.200; Commencement Proclamation, NSW Government Gazette No.169, 16 November 2007, p.8465.
10. Ibid., s.83(c).
11. Functional Retention and Disposal Authority (FA232): Mental Health Care, 2.0.0.