10 FACTS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE DANGERS OF ELECTROSHOCK
These are the facts you need to know to help ban the use of electroconvulsive therapy:
- Electroshock was invented by Italian psychiatrist Ugo Cerletti in 1938 after seeing pigs electric shocked before slaughter, making them more docile before being killed. This inspired him to try the same “treatment” on humans.
- More than 80 years after its invention, psychiatrists admit they still don’t know how it “works.” Among the proposed theories is that ECT “caused a good kind of brain damage.”
- Psychiatrists claim modern ECT is not as barbaric as the electroshock depicted in the movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. But the voltage of modern ECT is higher than it was during that era (1960s) when patients’ bones used to break from violent convulsions during the “treatment.”
- Today patients rarely suffer broken bones because muscle “relaxants” are first administered, making ECT appear less brutal. The muscle relaxant itself can be highly dangerous, however, documented to cause cardiac arrest and potentially life-threatening and/or fatal allergic reactions.
- Modern electroshock treatment delivers a pulse of current to the brain that is 7.5 times stronger than electrical fences used to deter bears.
- Yet psychiatrists lobby its increased use on children.
More than 80 years after its invention, psychiatrists admit they still don’t know how it “works.”
- The American Psychiatric Association (APA) requested that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulators broaden the clearance for using ECT on children.
- Through Freedom of Information Act requests in the US, it was shown that 19 states are currently electroshocking children, with 7 states shocking children between the ages of 0 and 5.
- The World Health Organization states, “There are no indications for the use of ECT on minors, and hence this should be prohibited through legislation.”
- Electroshock is also being used on pregnant women with one study showing the infant mortality rate was 7.1 percent. The FDA has never required any clinical trials proving safety or efficacy of treatment.
FACTS
LOOKING BACK OVER THE YEAR
The last year brought expansion and further reach of CCHR’s message. Here are the stats:
502,022
BOOKLETS
distributed exposing the truth behind abuses in the field of mental health
118
COUNTRIES
from which orders were placed for CCHR materials
157
MILLION
were reached through media exposing the true source of mental health abuse
20,920
PEOPLE
toured CCHR’s Psychiatry: An Industry of Death Museum in Hollywood, California, this year
1,853
EVENTS
against psychiatric abuse were held to give voice to the voiceless
END PSYCHIATRIC ABUSE
As a nonprofit mental health watchdog, CCHR relies on memberships and donations to carry out its mission to eradicate psychiatric violations of human rights and clean up the field of mental health. To become part of the world’s largest movement for mental health change, join the group that has helped enact more than 180 laws protecting citizens from abusive psychiatric practices.
