ECT - what no one is talking about

She said that if given the choice she would not have ECT “ever again” and that she would not recommend it to anyone.

As with most controversial practices, people of all types have an opinion. Doctors who support ECT, for instance, argue that it only causes death in one out of 10,000.

A nurse at the hospital, Mark, reported that he had witnessed an ECT procedure and said he would not do it to himself, even though he believed the practice had positive effects on a patient’s rehabilitation. He also said that ECT was not like the famous scene from One flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, but that nowadays the treatment was “more humane”.

Another patient at the hospital, Edward, believed the practice was about “suppression” and “subjugation” of the people. He said that he believed the brain “is a very fragile instrument” only “used to micro-volts of electricity”, and that it was wrong to “short circuit” such a fine instrument.

In the hope of finding an expert I tried contacting Patricia’s doctor on three occasions. I received no reply. I eventually went in to see him and noticed a commotion as the switchboard sent my message for a request to interview him. After waiting in the lobby for five minutes a stocky European man walked in with a security guard on his left and right. He said quite plainly “If you come here again I will call the police and have you arrested for disturbing my work”. In disbelief I had no recourse but to leave the premises. He would not even defend his “work”.

Doctors who are against ECT believe that the current term is misleading because ECT is not a form of therapy and causes more problems than it purports to cure. It is well known that the practice causes the destruction of memory synapses in the brain resulting in amnesia.

Lawrence Stephen believes that even the validity of ECT’s supporters claims, that the “therapy” cures depression, is mistaken. Most psychiatrists who recommend ECT believe, or assume, that “unhappiness” can be caused by “unknown” biological abnormalities in the brain. They will even readily admit that the practice is experimental while ignoring the facts.

The fact is ECT has caused some patients so much anguish that they have committed suicide after receiving the “treatment”. Ernest Hemmingway, for instance, commited suicide shortly after having received shock therapy at the Menninger Clinic in 1961.

(Hemmingway’s suicide is documented on Wikipedia. There have been various other studies, about suicide after ECT, which are by no means all inclusive or without bias. The figures for suicide are quite low in these studies (i.e. 0.001 per cent), yet this is ironic because supporters of ECT argue that it reduces suicide rates - “mostly”.)

This is one reason many critics believe the practice should be outlawed as soon as possible.

A critical blogger states in ECT.org that the practice is “… draconian, if not evil … an artifact of the infancy of psychiatric development from the fifties”. David Oaks, a mental health consumer advocate, believes the practice is “barbaric”, has a high relapse rate and should be banned as soon as possible.

If the practice is not abolished soon there should at least be rules for informed consent, and the voltage used should be reduced substantially and regulated. Until then more discussion is necessary and the practice should be investigated.