Ban Electroshock

Banning the Use of Electroshock in Florida!

In light of the fact that the FDA admits electroshock also known as electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) can cause cardiovascular complications, memory loss, cognitive impairment, brain damage and death and that psychiatrists admit they do not know how ECT “works,” we asking Florida to ban the ECT device from use.

Bills to ban the use of electroshock and psychosurgery on children in Florida have been filed.

Senate Bill 252: Psychiatric Treatments filed by Senator Osgood and House Bill 255: Psychiatric Treatments filed by Rep. Amesty are identical bills and they are calling for the banning of ECT and psychosurgery on anyone younger than 18 in the state of Florida.

While CCHR FL, has been asking for a total ban on ECT, this is a good stepping stone and CCHR FL is supporting these bills.

The filing of these bills was also reported in Florida Politics – Rosalind Osgood, Carolina Amesty seek ban on shock therapy for children

PLEASE ASK YOUR FL HOUSE REP AND FLORIDA SENATOR TO BECOME A

CO-SPONSOR – PLEASE ALSO CALL YOUR SENATOR AND REP! JUST TWO SIMPLE CALLS CAN MAKE A HUGE DIFFERENCE.

If you already received the CCHR FL Call-to-Action Alert and sent you emails and made your calls there is no need to take further action at this time.

If you need to know who your elected officials are CLICK HERE.

If you have not already done so, please also consider signing the petition to ban the use of the ECT device in Florida.

Children Aged 5 and Younger are being Subjected to Electroshock in the U.S.

According to Federal Medicare records, over 20,000 Americans received electroshock (ECT) in 2014 under Medicare alone. State Medicaid records document children aged five and younger are being subjected to electroshock in the United States.

With no clinical trials proving its safety, electroshock treatment, also known as ECT, plays Russian roulette with the lives of vulnerable people who are often ill-informed about its long-term effects, such as permanent brain damage, as well as severe memory loss. ECT can also cause, not prevent suicide. Law suits and coroners’ inquests confirm this, reinforcing the need to ban the use of the ECT device and insist upon workable, non-invasive treatments that do not harm.

While minimizing the serious adverse events associated with ECT,  American Psychiatric Association claims the merits of electroshock over antidepressants or in combination, although there are no clinical trials proving ECT’s safety and efficacy.

Charles Kellner, professor of psychiatry and director of ECT services at Icahn School of Medicine, Mount Sinai recently asserted in Psychiatric Times that adverse effects such as the cognitive damage from ECT isn’t a “safety” concern but, rather, a “tolerability” issue.

Astoundingly, he claimed that “refusing ECT because of concerns about memory loss is equivalent to refusing cancer chemotherapy because of concerns about hair loss.” His analogy is that after chemotherapy “most of the hair grows back” and with ECT, “most of the memories return.” Yet patients attest to permanent memory loss of important life events as a result of ECT—hardly a comparison to temporary hair loss.

Tests can confirm cancer—found in cell or tissue samples under a microscope and by imaging tests. There are no tests or imaging scans to confirm depression physically existing in the brain or body.

Chemotherapy can prevent cancer cells from growing and spreading by destroying or stopping them from dividing. Electroshock cannot prevent “depression cells” from spreading because they don’t exist. The chemical imbalance theory has been proven to be a lie.

ECT is not “life-saving” and could induce suicide:

• A coroner’s inquest determined that involuntary ECT did not prevent but may have led to a patient’s death after a suicide attempt.[i]
• A UK coroner investigating the death of mother in 2016 found that the ECT led to a “deterioration in her mental health…culminating in her decision to commit suicide.”[ii]
• Researchers reviewed more than 90 ECT studies since 2010 determining: “There is still no evidence that ECT is more effective than placebo for depression reduction or suicide prevention.”[iii]

ECT should never be used on children. This is why several U.S. states and Australia have acted accordingly to ban its use on them – California, Colorado, Tennessee and Texas have already banned the use of ECT on those 0-12 and 0-16.

Neither should such a brutal treatment be used on our elderly, pregnant women or any vulnerable individual seeking help.

ELECTROCONVULSIVE THERAPY’S DEATH RATE IS 50 TIMES HIGHER THAN THE US MURDER RATE

• The ECT death rate is 50 times higher than the US murder rate.
• Infant mortality rate was 7.1% following the administration of ECT to pregnant mothers.
• ECT sends up to 460 volts of electricity through the brain in order to induce a grand mal seizure.
• With an estimated 100,000 Americans a year given ECT, for a total of about $260 worth of electricity, psychiatrists have created a $5.4 billion shock empire.
• The human brain operates on 0.2 volts, nearly eight times less than the power of a watch battery—1.5 volts—compared to up to 460 volts put through the brain in a single shock treatment, 2,300 times the electricity that the brain uses to function.

• Side effects of ECT include amnesia (substantial and permanent memory loss), confusion, disorientation, apathy, disinterest, headaches, nausea, slowed reaction time, lowered intellectual function and death.
• Children between the ages of 0–5 are being shocked under the guise of “treatment.”
• ECT can cause a 20- to 40-point drop in IQ.
• The FDA has never required clinical studies that prove electroshock is either safe or effective, despite being used for more than 80 years.

FACTS ABOUT ELECTROSHOCK

Electroshock, also known as electroconvulsive therapy or ECT, involves up to 460 volts of electricity being shot through the brain causing a grand mal seizure. A grand mal seizure is defined as a type of seizure that involves a loss of consciousness and violent muscle contractions.[i]

It is known that ECT has serious possible side effects and adverse events including cardiovascular complications (including heart attacks), breathing complications, confusion, permanent memory loss, brain damage and even death.[ii]

Facts Not Generally Known about Electroshock

• The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has never required the manufacturers of ECT devices to provide clinical trials proving the device’s safety and efficacy.
• An article in Psychiatric News, the official newspaper of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) in 2016 admitted: “We don’t know exactly how electroconvulsive therapy works” and “At least a dozen theories have been proposed as mechanisms of action for ECT but few, if any, have found much acceptance.” One theory is that “ECT caused a good kind of brain damage.”
• The voltage and electrical current of modern ECT is higher today.[iii]
• A study published in Advances in Psychiatric Treatment in 2006 stated the “newer methods of ECT have not resulted in an appreciable decrease in adverse effects.”[iv] Nor does ECT cure. In fact, there is a 40% to 70% failure (relapse) rate within six months of receiving ECT, requiring more electroshock, called “continuation” and “maintenance ECT,” along with ongoing antidepressants and/or other psychotropic drugs administered.[v]
• Despite its use for the past 85 years, it remains unknown how ECT “works.”

ECT is not a cure. Furthermore, a Texas ECT Annual Report recorded six deaths in 2014 shortly after ECT administration, four of which were suicide.   Suicide was the leading cause of death within two weeks post ECT.

Brain Damage and the Use of Electroconvulsive Therapy Devices

It is important for you to know and understand that claims that electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) are safe and effective are not supported by clinical science. The use of ECT remains a theoretical practice with no conclusive mechanism determined to prove how ECT works.

The Somatics, LLC, one of two companies that still manufacture ECT devices in the United States, is located in Florida.

The regulatory report released by Somatics provides the following information on side effects and adverse events associated with ECT:[i]

ADVERSE EVENTS

Certain patients will experience adverse events in conjunction with electroconvulsive therapy. Patients should be made aware of these risks and confirm that they fully understand them prior to consenting to therapy.

The most common reported adverse effects of ECT are:

• Headache.
• Muscle soreness; Mild to moderate pain/discomfort, including jaw pain. • Nausea.
• Disorientation immediately after seizure induction.
• Memory dysfunction (see further discussion below).

Recent estimates in the medical literature of the mortality rate associated with ECT treatment are 1 per 10,000 patients or 1 per 80,000 treatments.

Other serious adverse events have occurred, including adverse reaction to anesthetic agents / neuromuscular blocking agents; adverse skin reactions (e.g., skin burns); cardiac complications, including arrhythmia, ischemia/infarction (i.e., heart attack), acute hypertension, hypotension, and stroke; cognition and memory impairment; brain damage; dental/oral trauma; general motor dysfunction; physical trauma (i.e., if inadequate supportive drug treatment is provided to mitigate unconscious violent movements during convulsions); hypomanic or manic symptoms (e.g., treatment- emergent mania, postictal delirium or excitement); neurological symptoms (e.g., paresthesia, dyskinesias); tardive seizures; prolonged seizures; non-convulsive status epilepticus; pulmonary complications (e.g., aspiration/inhalation of foreign material, pneumonia, hypoxia, respiratory obstruction such as laryngospasm, pulmonary embolism, prolonged apnea); visual disturbance; auditory complications; onset/exacerbation of psychiatric symptoms; partial relief of depressive anergia enabling suicidal behavior; homicidality; substance abuse; coma; falls; and device malfunction (creating potential risks such as excessive dose administration).

ECT may result in anterograde or retrograde amnesia. Such post-treatment amnesia typically dissipates over time; however, incomplete recovery is possible. In rare cases, patients may experience permanent memory loss or permanent brain damage.

Despite the fact that the manufacturer of the Thymatron® System IV ECT device clearly lists out very serious side effects and adverse events associated with ECT, the ECT machine is being promoted to people in crisis and their families as a safe and effective “treatment”.

SOURCES:

Children Aged 5 and Younger are being Subjected to Electroshock in the U.S.

[i] Aisha Dow, “Grandfather forced to undergo ECT before ‘preventable’ death,” The Age, 18 Apr. 2018, https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/grandfather-forced-to-undergo-ect-before-preventable-death-20180418-p4zacy.html

[ii] Dominic Gilbert, “Mental health service failure,” Eastern Daily Press, 18 Apr. 2018, https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/mental-health-failures-katherine-rought-rought-1-5480329

[iii] John Read and Chelsea Arnold, “Is Electroconvulsive Therapy for Depression More Effective Than Placebo? A Systematic Review of Studies Since 2009,” Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry, Volume 19, Number 1, 2017, http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/springer/ehpp/2017/00000019/00000001/art00002

FACTS ABOUT ELECTROSHOCK

[i] https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/grand-mal-seizure/symptoms-causes/syc-20363458

[ii] Jonathon Emord & Associates, Citizens Petition filed with the FDA Commissioner, 14 Aug. 2016, http://emord.com/blawg/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/1-ECT-Citizen-Petition.pdf.

[iii] Douglas G. Cameron, “ECT: Sham Statistics, the Myth of Convulsive Therapy, and the Case for Consumer Misinformation,” The Journal of Mind and Behavior, Vol 15, No 1 and 2, Winter and Spring 1994, pp 177-198, http://www.ectresources.org/ECTscience/Cameron__DG___1994_critique_of_ECT.pdf.

[iv] Harold Robertson, Robin Pryor, “Memory and cognitive effects of ECT: informing and assessing patients,” Advances in Psychiatric Treatment, May 2006, 12 (3) 228-237; DOI: 10.1192/apt.12.3.228, http://apt.rcpsych.org/content/12/3/228.full.

[v] Ana Jelovac, et al., “Relapse Following Successful Electroconvulsive Therapy for Major Depression: A Meta-Analysis,” Neuropsychopharmacology, Nov 2013, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3799066/.

Brain Damage and the Use of Electroconvulsive Therapy Devices

[i] http://www.thymatron.com/downloads/System_IV_Regulatory_Update.pdf