IMPORTANT FACTS

1. Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT or electroshock) involves the application of between 180 and 460 volts of electricity through the brain, causing a grand mal seizure and irreversible brain damage.

2. People 65 years of age and older comprise almost 50% of those getting electroshock today. ECT can shorten the lives of elderly people

3. Women make up two thirds of all people shocked; elderly women are the primary target.

4. Of the estimated 300 people who die each year from ECT in America, approximately 250 are elderly patients.

5. In the U.S., 65-year-olds receive 360% more shock treatment than 64-year-olds because at age 65 Medicare (government insurance) coverage takes effect.

CHAPTER TWO Brutal and Violent Treatments

Psychiatric drugging of the elderly is not the only legacy of psychiatric interference with care for our senior citizens. Indiscriminate use of violent restraints and Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT or shock treatment) on the elderly is also responsible for needless suffering.

Jennifer Martin�s 70-year-old mother started having headaches and nausea. She stopped eating and couldn�t talk. A psychiatrist claimed the elderly woman was in shock from recent deaths in her family and that she needed ECT to bring her out of it. Less than 24 hours after the treatment, Jennifer�s mother was dead. An autopsy revealed that her problem was not depression, but something wrong with her brain stem. �Shock treatment killed her,� Jennifer said in 1997.

Although rarely referred to as shock treatment by psychiatrists, ECT involves the application of between 180 and 460 volts of electricity through the brain, causing a grand mal seizure and irreversible brain damage.

While psychiatrists openly admit they have no idea how ECT works, they have no hesitation in shocking people, including the elderly.

Dr. Nathaniel Lehrman, retired clinical director of Kingsboro State Mental Hospital, New York, warned that elderly people can least stand the rigors of ECT. �This is gross mistreatment on a national scale,� he stated. Yet people 65 years of age and older comprise almost 50% of those getting electroshock today.

In 1991, psychologist Robert F. Morgan testified before a hearing into ECT that an elderly person�s �depression� is often triggered or worsened by their fears of losing their memory and health, both of which electroshock is known to affect adversely.

A survey of psychiatrists, psychotherapists and general practitioners by the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Britain confirmed memory loss as an effect of ECT. Of the 1,344 psychiatrists surveyed, 21% reported �long-term side effects and risks of brain damage, memory loss [and] intellectual impairment.� General practitioners said that 34% of patients whom they had seen months after receiving ECT � � were poor or worse.� Fifty psychotherapists were more candid about the effects of ECT; some of their comments were: �It can cause personality changes and memory impairment, making therapy more difficult� and � � ECT, however it is dressed up in clinical terms, is inseparable from an assault.�

A watchdog group in the United Kingdom called �ECT Anonymous� summed up the Royal College�s report as �a chilling catalogue of blundering incompetence.� Spokesperson for the group, Roy Barker, described ECT as: �An appointment with fate, a brief but vital juncture in your life, a few seconds, that, mishandled, can destroy the quality of your entire life.�

In 2004, psychiatrist Harold A. Sackheim, a major proponent of ECT, when addressing the frequency with which patients complain of memory loss, stated, �As a field, we have more readily acknowledged the possibility of death due to ECT than the possibility of profound memory loss, despite the fact that adverse effects on cognition [consciousness] are by far ECT�s most common side effects.�

Dr. Colin Ross, a Texas psychiatrist, candidly stated in 2004: �Nobody understands � precisely how ECT does anything. But it�s known for scientific fact that what it does do is cause a drastic impairment in your EEG [recording of electrical activity in the brain].� Animal studies also reveal ECT causes microscopic hemorrhage [bleeding] and brain shrinkage. �So there�s really no possibility of disputing that ECT causes damage to the brain. It�s just a question of how subtle or how coarse or gross is it and how long does it last?�

Dr. Ross says that existing ECT literature shows �there is a lot of brain damage, there is memory loss, the death rate does go up, the suicide rate doesn�t go down.�

A 1993 study revealed that ECT shortens the lives of elderly people�that �Patients over 80 years old who receive ECT for major depression are at increased risk of death over the two years following treatment.�

In the United States, 65-year-olds receive 360% more shock treatment than 64-year-olds. It is not coincidental that at age 65, Medicare (government insurance) coverage takes effect. The U.S. psychiatric industry alone today reaps an estimated $5 billion a year from the administration of ECT. In addition, psychiatrists have an almost �malpractice-free� domain because any elderly patient complaints after ECT can easily be attributed to the patient�s senility.

Of the estimated 300 people who die each year from ECT in America, approximately 250 of them are elderly patients. Yet, USA Today reported that doctors rarely report shock treatment on death certificates, even when the connection seems apparent, and when death certificate instructions clearly call for it.

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