Kathy Petsch, age 17, of Greenville, Miss., for her question:

IS THE LOBOTOMY STILL USED?

Lobotomy is a medical procedure in which the prefrontal lobes of the cortex of the brain are removed. The operation became popular after it won the 1949 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for its originator, a Portuguese psychiatrist named Antonio Moniz. Dr. Moniz introduced the lobotomy in 1935 as a way of controlling aggressive or violent behavior for some of his patients. The operation isn't used too often these days.

The operation was used to treat severely emotionally ill patients.

In 1937 the original procedure was changed to include the cutting of almost all the nerve tracts connecting the prefrontal lobes with the rest of the brain.

By the 1940s, doctors were realizing that many of the lobotomy patients were being transformed into inactive people who had almost no initiative. Neurosurgeons also came up with less extensive procedures to control the behavior of violent or severely emotional patients. Also, the discovery of antipsychotic drugs reduced the need for the lobotomy.