Lobotomies did not stop all at once, but they largely died out from the late 1950s through the 1970s, with only rare cases continuing into the 1980s in a few countries.

Short timeline answer

  • 1950s–1960s:
    • Lobotomies began to “fall out of favor” once antipsychotic drugs like chlorpromazine (Thorazine) appeared in the mid‑1950s.
* In the United States, the last well‑documented lobotomy by Walter Freeman, the main promoter of the procedure, was performed in 1967; the patient died and he was banned from operating.
  • Legal bans and regional differences:
    • The Soviet Union officially banned lobotomies in 1950 on moral and human‑rights grounds.
* By the late 1970s, most countries had effectively stopped doing traditional lobotomies, though some reports note isolated use into the 1980s in places like France and Scandinavia.
  • Today:
    • Classic frontal lobotomy is considered an outdated and unethical procedure and is no longer performed in mainstream medicine, having been replaced by medications and much more precise psychosurgical techniques for very severe cases.

In practical terms: when people ask “when did they stop doing lobotomies,” the most accurate general answer is that routine use collapsed in the 1950s–60s, the last prominent U.S. case was in 1967, and the procedure had essentially vanished from standard psychiatric practice by the late 1970s.