Psychosurgery.

Marilyn Capon, Tony Bartholomew and Peter Barnard suffer from manic depression. Drugs do not help them. The film follows their efforts to be accepted for controversial brain surgery at King's College Hospital, London, in which a minute amount of brain tissue is destroyed by the implantation of radioactive rods. 1300 such operations have been carried out since 1991, about one third of patients being greatly improved by it. The prospective patients describe the state of mind which led them to seek this radical surgery and they are shown in discussion with surgeon John Bartlett as they await a decision on their eligibility for surgery. All three undergo the operation, scenes from which are shown in detail. For one patient the operation is a great success; another undergoing a second operation; but one patient found no improvement at all.