Does modern electroconvulsive therapy use less electricty than in the “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” era?
ECT proponents claim modern shock devices and methods use a safer kind of electricity in the smallest dose neccesary to trigger an “adequet” seizure. They claim these changes lead to less memory problems and brain damage is thing of the past.
I believe that if everyone understood electrical science as easily as we grasp basic math, the ECT industry would not exist.
Unfortuantely understadning volts, columbs, and ohms requires specialized education to understand. Even ECT providers aren’t trained in electrical theory. This complexity makes it easy to obscure various dangers in plain sight, without the average person being able to identify or challenge them. Nothing more than a toe twitch, right?
Many have pointed out discrepencies with the claim modern ECT devices use less electricity, including Linda Andre in her well researched book, Doctors of Deception, What they Don’t want you to know about Shock Treatment.
ECT: Sham Statistics, the Myth of Convulsive Therapy, and the Case for Consumer Misinformation
This one of the most eye-opening works on this topic I’ve encountered in over a decade of researching Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT). Written by Douglas G. Cameron in 1994, the paper presents compelling insights into the treatment’s risks and misconceptions.
Cameron, a former ECT recipient himself, shares his personal experience with ECT, revealing that he suffered permanent memory loss and cognitive impairments as a direct result of the treatment. He describes losing extensive personal and educational memories, including significant aspects of his high school and college education.
Cameron emphasizes that his experience is not unique; many others who have undergone ECT report similar lasting effects of memory dysfunction and brain damage.
He also notes that the side effects he experienced were far more severe than the temporary confusion and memory loss typically mentioned by manufacturers, highlighting the significant risks associated with ECT.
In his paper, Cameron argues that ECT causes significant long-term or permanent memory loss in many patients, contradicting claims by ECT device manufacturers and the American Psychiatric Association (APA) that memory damage is rare and temporary.
He challenges the prevailing theory that the effectiveness of ECT stems from the seizures it induces, asserting instead that its harmful effects are due to the electrical currents used during treatment.
Furthermore, the paper highlights widespread misinformation about the safety of modern ECT machines, revealing that newer devices actually use more electricity than older models, resulting in greater brain damage.
As it turns out, he didn’t stop with this paper
For the last 30+ years, he has worked on comprehensive, PhD-level textbooks titled The Great Electroconvulsive Hoax, Parts 1 and 2, published in 2023. In these volumes, he challenges convulsive theory, provides extensive evidence to support the claims and arguments he made in his 1994 paper, including electrical formulas, historical evidence, and much more.
I beleive his work is essential for understanding the complex electrical science and how it has been used to obfuscate the truth of modern ECT device’s actual power, and the true impact is has on those exposed to it.
I encourage ECT researchers, patient safety advocates and lawyers to read Douglas Cameron’s work.
Additional Resources
- Proponent, Sarah Lisanby “no evidence of brain damage”
- Autopsy report of Elsie Tindle, a UK woman who died from brain damage caused by forced ECT (please note,UK ECT devices have more power than American ones)
- ECT Device Manufacturer Admits Brain Damage as a Risk of Electroconvulsive Therapy
- Expert Report of Dr. Kenneth Castleman (the electical impact of ECT)
- Expert Report of Dr. Bennet Omalu (ECT causes brain damage)
- ECT information page from Baum Headlund, a law firm representing people harmed by ECT
- Doctors of Deception, What they Don’t want you to know about Shock Treatment
- Electroshock Therapy (ECT) Trial – Jury Finds Somatics Failed to Warn of ECT Risks
- California Supreme Court ruled that patients autonomy in making treatment decisions must be respected
