Transorbital leucotomy in a state hospital program.

Abstract

State hospitals throughout the United States are faced with the problem of an expanding general population with an increasing number of mentally ill, great numbers of whom are denied proper and adequate state hospital care because of the relatively static and insufficient number of available beds. It has been estimated that there are today 8,470,000 psychiatric cases in the United States, of which 938,000 are cases of psychoses and 434,000 of psychoneuroses.1Of the total 680,913 neuropsychiatric beds in the United States, comprising 47.9 per cent of all hospital beds, 562,678 are in state hospitals.2An estimated 311,000 additional beds3are required to meet the state hospital needs, and the state hospital overcrowding, nationally, averages 16.3 per cent.4This, in addition to the human, social and economic aspects, is a vital and urgent physical problem requiring attention. With approximately 210,000 new patients5being admitted annually