There are many studies that have been done over the years about ECT. Some have been used to argue in favor of its use while others have been used to show it is only a destructive procedure. Much of this research, on either side, is too questionable to be trusted. Worse, it bogs people down in relatively unimportant minutiae about ECT. It distracts.

     A common sense viewpoint about ECT can easily be obtained, however, just by looking at three key, uncontested facts.

     First, ECT emits electric shocks up to 460 volts to a human brain, but only after injecting a person with the paralyzing drug used at electrocutions (so that vertebrae are not broken and teeth are not crushed from the electroshock). Before the paralytic drug is administered, an anesthetic is given to the person so he or, more likely, she cannot feel the pain of body paralysis. And before that, a gel or paste is applied underneath the electrodes so that the patient’s skin is not burned by the intense electricity passing through it.

     Second, the reason this brutal shock is being administered to a person in the first place is to induce a grand mal seizure that will last at least twenty seconds. This protocol is based on the questionable psychiatric theory that a strong enough seizure can help cure various mental disorders.

     Every other doctor on the planet, of course, is doing all they can to prevent seizures. Third, the FDA has never approved any electroshock device. It has only “cleared” them.

     That means it has only spent around 20 hours investigating the devices, not the 1200 hours usually spent reviewing all the scientific data regarding their safety and effectiveness which only then can lead to a product’s “approval” by the FDA.

     Of course, at $300 to $1000 per ECT session, and a standard initial ECT program consisting of between 5 and 15 treatments, with often another 10 to 20 maintenance treatments per year, it may never happen that the FDA — mostly funded by the Big Pharma/psychiatry folks – will ever take it upon themselves to look into the actual safety or effectiveness of ECT.

     That’s their brand of common sense.

     Follow the money.