23/07/2025
🚨 A gunshot to the head inadvertently cured a man’s mental illness.
The 19-year-old, identified only as “George,” had been living with debilitating OCD—washing his hands hundreds of times a day and taking frequent showers—until he attempted su***de by shooting himself in the head with a .22-caliber rifle.
Remarkably, while the bullet lodged in his left frontal lobe, the procedure to remove it did not eliminate all fragments, yet the aftermath brought a startling neurological shift.
Within three weeks of the injury, George’s compulsions had almost entirely disappeared. Over the next five years, he reentered society with stunning progress—holding down a job and becoming a straight-A student in college. According to Dr. Laszlo Solyom, who treated George, the gunshot incident had effectively disabled the part of the brain linked to his OCD without causing broader cognitive damage.
While this case is viewed as an extreme and accidental outcome, it highlights the powerful and still-mysterious connections between brain injury and mental illness—and underscores how much remains to be understood in neuropsychiatry.
While this case is viewed as an extreme and accidental outcome, it highlights the powerful and still-mysterious connections between brain injury and mental illness—and underscores how much remains to be understood in neuropsychiatric.
https://www.nytimes.com/1988/02/25/us/brain-wound-eliminates-man-s-mental-illness.html