ECT’s Informed Consent? “No Pain, No Gain”

     University of London John Read’s recent survey of electroshock patients reveals the extent of the damage done to individuals by ECT. That shouldn’t surprise us, but because his study involved 766 people from 41 countries, the sheer number of people from all segments of humanity who suffered damage from ECT leaves little doubt the practice should be banned.

     Almost 97 percent of respondents reported one or more negative effects from the treatment. Over 50 percent reported only negative effects. Over 80 percent reported memory loss, permanent and temporary. 30 percent reported cognitive decline beyond that memory loss.

     Yes, 20 percent reported an improved mood – at least temporarily – but that small percentage of positive responses dims in comparison to the severe headaches noted by 11 percent of the respondents, the 8 percent who felt abused, violated or traumatized just by the procedure itself, and the others who reported impaired relationships and personality changes. Others reported chronic pain, emotional numbing, loss of employment, stigma, mistrust of professionals, and increased impulses for suicide following their ECT treatments.

     The damage itself from ECT is not a new finding.

     Here’s what is new. Almost 60 percent of the respondents said they had not been given adequate information through informed consent. An additional 17 percent were not sure if they had been given enough information to make a rational decision about receiving ECT.

     It was forced on them.

     That’s 75 percent of all those who received ECT.

     7 percent of the respondents said they were traumatized solely because they were given ECT against their will or because they felt pressured to agree to the treatment. 13 percent felt violated by the electric shock “in a way that shouldn’t be possible,” as one person put it.

     This is a level of force beyond even the 460 volts unleashed through a person’s brain. The unmitigated coercion by psychiatrists delivering ECT today still reflects the barbaric mindset of those early psychiatrists who were insane enough to come up with the idea of ECT in the first place as a “cure” for someone’s problems.

     No pain, no gain, eh?