By any standards many of us will probably look back on 2025 as among the world’s worst ever years. These days, when asked ’How are you doing, John?’ I feel obliged to respond not with the traditional British riposte of ‘Not too bad,’ but with a list of all the political horrors of the year, which I shall leave unnamed here.
Sometimes I feel lucky to be living in the UK. But then our government just caved in to threats from the pharmaceutical companies and the manchild and signed a ‘deal’ doubling NHS expenditure on pills and weakening our already questionable drug accreditation standards.
But the year has, nevertheless, somehow ended on a high for our little ECT research team, composed of three women who have had ECT, Sarah Hancock (USA), Sue Cunliffe (England) and Lisa Morrison (Northern Ireland) and three British clinical psychologists, Lucy Johnstone, Chris Harrop and me.
In 2024, 858 ECT recipients and 286 family members and friends, from 44 countries, responded to our online survey about their experiences of ECT. In the past two months we have managed to publish six research papers emanating from our international ECT survey. Chris and Lisa have written blogs about the first five, which are summarised in the table below.
| Read J et al (2025) A large exploratory survey of ECT recipients, family members and friends: What information do they recall being given? Journal of Medical Ethics |
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| Read J et al (2025) A survey of 1144 ECT recipients, family members and friends: Does ECT work? International Journal of Mental Health Nursing |
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| Read J et al (2025) A survey of 1144 ECT recipients, family members and friends: Incidence, severity and duration of memory deficits. Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry |
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| Read J, et al (2025) The adverse effects of electroconvulsive therapy beyond memory loss: An international survey of recipients and relatives. International Journal of Mental Health |
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| Morrison L, et al (2025) Electroconvulsive therapy and women: an international survey. Health Care for Women International |
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| Read J et al (2025) A survey of ECT recipients, family members and friends: Are the self-reported reasons for their problems being addressed? International Journal of Mental Health Nursing |
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Paper Number Six
The most recent paper, published at the beginning of December asked, of ECT recipients and relatives, ‘Are the self-reported reasons for their problems being addressed?’
Respondents were first asked: ‘To what extent do you think the problem for which ECT was prescribed (e.g., depression) was caused by biological factors (chemical imbalance, brain disorder, genetics, etc.) vs. psychological/social factors (e.g., loneliness, stress, loss/bereavement, abuse, neglect, poverty, violence, discrimination, etc.)’. Fifty-one percent of recipients (48% of relatives) thought the causes were mostly psychosocial. Only 29% of recipients (36% of relatives) thought they were mostly biological.
Childhood Adversities
More specifically, 84% reported one or more adverse childhood adversities (including emotional, physical and sexual abuse and emotional neglect). Of those reporting childhood adversities, 78% felt that the adversities contributed to the problems for which ECT was prescribed to treat.
Crucially, however, only about a third (32%) reported ever having been asked about childhood adversities by mental health services prior to being given ECT. Furthermore, only 30% felt that the adversities had been addressed therapeutically. The only good news here is that the minority who were asked did seem to get some help for the adversities.
Recent Stressors
Recent stressors also went largely unrecognised. Some 81% of ECT recipients reported at least one significant stressor in the six months before treatment, most commonly coercive/emotional abuse and loneliness. Sixty-seven percent of these believed their stressors played a role in the development of their difficulties, but only 34% were asked about them. Just 21% felt the stressors had been addressed.
Seventy-one percent of relatives concurred that recent stressors had helped to cause the problem for which ECT was prescribed (they were not asked the other questions because we thought they would not know the answers).
Psychological Therapy
Guidelines suggest that other treatments, including psychological therapy, should be tried before ECT. One in four (26%) had not tried therapy.
Recency
Results suggest that clinical practice is improving over time. On all five clinical practice variables (asking about and addressing childhood adversities ACEs and recent stressors, and psychological therapy having been tried) the mean year of last ECT was significantly more recent for affirmative responses than for negative ones.
This is good news. But it is not the same as the adverse events of ECT reducing over time, as is often claimed by that small and dwindling number of psychiatrists who still believe in the healing powers of electricity and seizures. The findings in our paper on the ‘Incidence, severity and duration of memory deficits’ found no reduction in time in the damage being done.
Methodology
An obvious potential limitation of a convenience sample like ours is that the sample may have been biased towards those with a negative view of ECT, those ‘with an axe to grind’. This is quite possible, and ECT proponents are, understandably, quick to raise this issue. They are less eager to point out that the bias could equally be in the other direction, against those with a negative experience. First, people for whom ECT had not alleviated the severe depression for which it is often prescribed might be unable to complete surveys. Second, people whose suicidality was not prevented by ECT could not participate. Third, patients who died during or soon after treatment due to a cerebral or cardiovascular event did not participate. Finally, some of those in whom ECT caused severe cognitive damage may have been unable to participate.
I would like to take this opportunity (one doesn’t mention such things in scientific journals) to reassure those ECT psychiatrists and other ECT advocates who tried to sabotage and undermine the survey on social media, by proudly announcing that they had filled out the survey several times themselves and had not been stopped from doing so, that their responses, and other duplicate responses, were, of course, deleted.
Paradigm Shift
Our finding that respondents were rarely asked the social causes of their problems is far from unique. Multiple previous studies have found that the majority of users of mental health services, internationally, are neither asked about adverse or traumatic events nor have them adequately addressed if they do disclose them.
Our findings are, however, a uniquely disturbing example of what happens when you medicalise human distress. How can electricity possibly address child abuse, or domestic violence? We hope these findings will encourage a radical rethink of mental health support, one that moves beyond diagnosis and invasive procedures to a more holistic, trauma-informed approach to addressing the social context of distress.
The survey findings certainly align with United Nations and World Health Organization concerns that because of the dominance of the ‘medical model,’ mental health services around the world are neglecting social determinants:
‘Mental health and well-being are strongly associated with social, economic, and physical environments, as well as poverty, violence, and discrimination. However, most mental health systems focus on diagnosis, medication, and symptom reduction, neglecting the social determinants that affect people’s mental health.’
Co-author Sue Cunliffe (England), herself an ECT recipient, comments:
‘The hopelessness and entrapment caused by domestic abuse gave me just one option, suicide, to ease the pain. For that I was given ECT and ended up so brain damaged I had to give up my job as a doctor. In a recent report my GP wrote “domestic abuse misdiagnosed and ECT given in error … causing brain damage.”’
Co-author Sarah Hancock (USA), also an ECT recipient, added:
‘The results of our ECT patient survey highlight the absence of routine identification and treatment of the real causes of our symptoms. These results demonstrate I am far from the only person prematurely prescribed ECT without finding out what was really going on and what I really needed.’
Rosie Weatherley, Information Content Manager from Mind, the UK’s largest mental health NGO said,
‘Mind echoes concerns raised by this research—the evidence base for ECT has never been fit for purpose and this latest study further substantiates the need for a re-think about whether and when this treatment is offered to patients.’
GRATITUDE
I want to end the year by saying a huge thank you to:
- The hundreds of people all over the world who took the time to fill out our survey, even
when it was distressing to recall some of the experiences.
- Mind, the UK’s wonderful mental health NGO, for helping with the design and dissemination of the survey.
- The many other NGOs and mental health organisations who disseminated the survey.
- Everyone, anywhere, engaged in the struggle to create more humane, evidence-based, human rights oriented, trauma informed help for when we are distressed or desperate.
- Everyone at Mad in America and all the other ‘Mad ins’ around the world.
- The other members of our amazing little ECT group: Chris, Lisa, Lucy, Sarah and Sue.
Thank you all, for being you.
Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah.
This is egregious conduct by these so called doctors. They shouldn’t be allowed to lie to people and not tell them about the serious effects that ECT causes. It should be against the law to not fully inform, to misrepresent, or to purposely deceive people about the risks and effects of any medical procedure or medication. The manipulation of peoples emotions and the preying on their vulnerability needs to stop. We have too many predators preying on the innocence and naivety of others. Not informing someone about the serious risks of any medical intervention is clearly unethical but we allow this as a society. I honestly can’t believe what I’m reading here. We have regressed as a society by allowing so many people to be abused and mistreated.
When we allow women and children to be abused like this it harms the rest of society as well in addition to the serious harm it causes women and children as individuals. So much of the work that has been done over the decades for women’s rights to ensure they are treated fairly has been undone. When we allow others to be abused and mistreated we are opening up the potential for more people to be abused in the future. It is sickening and disgusting that we are allowing women to be harmed like this. When will enough be enough already? When are people going to stand together and demand an end to this madness? Every day that goes by is another day that more people will be harmed by barbaric procedures such as ECT.
It truly breaks my heart to read articles like this. We have failed as a society when there aren’t basic safeguards and human rights in place to protect women and men from serious harm. There doesn’t seem to be much outrage from most people though. Nobody is protesting, rallying, or starting a petition to stop this from happening. Everyday our society declines further and the reason why is exactly because of barbaric procedures like ECT which we still allow to be abused against vulnerable people who arent fully informed about the damage it can cause. Reading these articles makes me feel sick and I am left with a terrible feeling about the future. If we don’t abolish ECT now it will be used to punish more innocent people. This immoral and unethical conduct from doctors needs to be addressed, those who have harmed others need to be held accountable, and this harmful outdated procedure needs to be ended.
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Matthew, you make valid points, but the nexus of corruption and frauds extends far beyond the issue of ECT, encompassing a wide range of venal or apathetic enablers in the media, academia, so-called regulatory bodies, and government.
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I completely agree with you. Unfortunately as you stated this goes way beyond ECT and involves multiple institutions and agencies. Many of the systems which control society are interconnected and they definitely share information. The saddest thing to me is that one abusive group supports or backs up another abusive group which allows this immoral conduct to continue. This system relies on institutions being interwoven and intertwined. None of the major institutions in society are permitted to exist separately and not share information or help the other agencies if requested.
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Matthew, fascism, in a nutshell, can be defined as the intertwining of privately owned corporations, public institutions, and governmental bodies. Mainstream psychiatry comprises an integral part of this corrupt nexus. It’s by no means accidental, therefore, that the mental health system pathologizes the behaviors of disenfranchised, impoverished, and marginalized elements of society as clinical “symptoms,” while ignoring or rationalizing the insatiable greed and lust for power of political and economic elites. This is a universal phenomenon, observable in the totalitarian USSR (where dissidents were diagnosed as “schizophrenics” and confined and forcibly drugged in hospital institutions) as well as in capitalist countries, where rebellious or avoidant non-conformists are stigmatized as “freaks,” “eccentrics,” “deviants,’ “schizoids,” etc. (take the case of the hikikimori in Japan, for example).
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That’s what terrifies me so much about all of this. That it’s all been done before in countries like the USSR and nazi Germany to punish dissidents and inconvenient people. People haven’t learned from history at all. The US and other western counties are doing the same thing to people today. I am one of those non conformists and I constantly have to worry about being abused, having my human rights violated, and worse things because this system exists and people won’t take a stand against it.
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Matthew, some courageous, honest individuals such as Robert Whitaker, Phil Hickey, Bruce Levine, and the late Thomas Szasz have taken an active stand against Pharmafia and the mental health system. But the struggle is uphill and by no means assured of success.
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It might surprise you, but techniques Western psychiatrists raved about like lobotomy were never popular in Soviet Union.
More important fact: Soviet Union never bragged about civil rights like Western countries. Which was all nice and dandy until contact with psychiatrists and suddenly all “rules of law” would disappear, no legal objection etc because it was question of medical procedure.
For me there is easy way to test is something dreadful technique. Make simple question: if German doctors were doing this or that to camp inmates, would they be put on trial for crimes? If answer is “yes”, then the answer is yes, it is something nasty and no sugarcoating can save it.
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Well and passionately said Joel
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I admire those individuals for taking a stand against the immoral practices of psychiatry. I have tried to take a stand against these unethical and corrupt practices as well but nobody takes me seriously. I am treated like a child who doesn’t know what they are talking about. My development as a human being has been stunted by this type of behavior towards me. It breaks my heart that I am not able to stand up for what I believe in by providing real opposition to this system of abuse, lies, manipulation, force, and violence. Every day I wish I could do more to stop others from being harmed by psychiatry. I am left with a horrible feeling because of this that I have to somehow find a way to deal with every day.
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This is in response to RZM’s comment:
That is interesting that lobotomies were never popular in the Soviet union. I never knew that. I just assumed things there were similar to this country. You have a good point about the German “doctors” as well. They should have been put on trial but I don’t know how many of them actually were. Many were brought over to the US with operation paperclip. The disturbing truth is that the predecessors to modern antidepressants and antipsychotics were developed and used by these monsters in the death and torture camps.
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John’s a good writer.
These results are no surprise.
The profession exhibits psychopathic traits and always has.
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Thank you for saying this! I believe the psychiatric profession is run by psychopaths.
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“People believe their mental health struggles are caused by childhood adversity and other stressors, but mental health services force electroshock instead of even asking about these causes.”
First, all medicine, not just its mental health fabrications, is simply not interested in causes. It’s about effects and their treatment for profit. Don’t confuse science, or its mythology, with business, controlling ‘science’ to confirm its agenda and bias. Rather than causes of disease coming first and remedies or cures afterward, the logic if not chronology is that treatments first find or manufacture problems for which their profit-making potential may become solutions. It’s not to the profit of the pharmafia to address reality of such ‘variables’ as your actual life experience when its biomedical business model requires fictions like germs or genes to run its rackets. Don’t take it personally. It’s just bizzness.
This is why, secondly, your doctor doesn’t give a damn about you personally, regardless of whether s/he personally cares about you. Whatever the intentions of any individual involved, medicine is an institutional matrix within which participants, ‘professionals’ above all ‘patients’, are bound to follow principles and practices serving another ruling class industry on behalf of the few at the expense of the many. You personally are part of a mass customer base benefitting the few primarily, yourself secondarily or incidentally, if at all. You are a means to an end, an economic unit on a spreadsheet reducing your life to data for profitability, not health, except insofar as its sales value translates into profit. Despite all their proven harms, ECTs remain useful and efficient technology to produce revenue returns on the assembly line of industrial medicine. When time is money and you need to process livestock as much as possible for payback on investment, here’s some hardware you can count on to displace any time-consuming inconvenience like the complexity of actual human experience.
Its self-proclaimed modern miracles notwithstanding, medicine is magic, misdirecting us from real causes of human illness. It directs our attention upon individual effects or symptoms of socioecological conditions to downplay the latter in favor of the former as a false focus or cause of illness, predicated on propaganda like germ warfare, one contagious case at a time, and revised eugenics of genetic pseudoscience, reducing human identity to biologism based on traits only existing as mathematical models without any probability let alone empirical demonstration of their own identity. The food we eat, the water we drink, the air we breathe…the basic conditions of all life on earth, including us, are under assault from industry. But we must be kept turning to the medical industry, dispensing more poisons upon us, for solutions, as with the never-ending (and lucrative) search for a cure to cancer among germs and genes while we keep sinking in this toxic stew.
Don’t look to the systemic abuses we suffer at the hands of our masters but to the snake oils they sell us under false advertising of health care. Thereby our misfortune is made their gain again at our expense, not least of all to our own health, as medical malpractice leads official death counts, itself a cancerous cause of dis-ease from our captivity to a capitalist economy that couldn’t care less about human well-being beyond our utilitarian value to its psychotic accumulation of wealth.
Among the sick ironies of this social system of capitalism is the use of ECTs as ‘therapy’ when electromagnetic pollution is one of the most likely causes of our malaise, a constant source of psychosomatic stress. Arthur Firstenberg’s “The Invisible Rainbow,” for example, provides extensive evidence and argument for how increasing infrastructure from telephone lines to wireless tech has radically destroyed the invisible energy fields by which life on earth existed prior to industrial capitalism. Yet what’s best for business overrules all other value, like a truly sustainable way of life, to keep us on a death march now herding us into a digital dungeon where we ourselves merge with the infrastructure in biodigital control grids called ‘smart’ cities. The UK as well as the U$ lead the way into this brave new abnormal of digital identities, guaranteeing whatever current year you’re living will be the worst ever. Welcome to the madhouse of the Machine perfecting the pathology of profit and power.
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Well said John. Doctors and other people in the medical industry don’t care about the causes of any of our conditions. We are only a number to them, another item on the assembly line to be processed as quickly as possible like you stated. They don’t care that people have different needs and are in different situations in life. Some people have financial issues, other have social problems, and still others are suffering because of their environment. Doctors don’t care about getting to the bottom of any of these issues. They want to keep the status quo going so they can continue to profit off peoples suffering and buy a second house or car.
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ECT is nonsense. Why? Because… mental illnesses are not in the brain, but in the soul of the person.
The unchanging rule : “You can’t treat something that isn’t in the brain, and it doesn’t treat it anyway.”
What does it do? – All psychoactive medications and drugs, including psychiatric drugs, do one thing… first numb healthy brains and then cause serious damage (chemical brain damage). And they do this quite well.
For this reason… none of the psychoactive medications and drugs, including psychiatric drugs, can and do treat something that doesn’t exist in the brain – that is, mental illnesses.
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As for ECT… That’s why ECT is such a huge absurdity.
The unchanging rule : “You can’t treat something that isn’t in the brain.”
No psychoactive medications and drugs… can treat something that doesn’t exist in the brain, and they cause people considerable permanent and fatal harm. For these and similar reasons, you cannot treat something that doesn’t exist in the brain – that is, imaginary mental illnesses.
It’s the same with giving people’s healthy brains electric shocks (ECT) to correct something that doesn’t exist in the brain – imagined mental illnesses.
ECT is another “money and reputation-making” tactic devised by mainstream psychiatry to supposedly fix what psychoactive medications and drugs couldn’t – that is, to cure imaginary mental illnesses.
ECT is one of the biggest DECEPTIONS devised to cover up the failures of psychoactive medications and drugs (and thus prevent the demise of mainstream psychiatry).
A tactic employed by mainstream psychiatry : When psychiatric drugs are ineffective and/or the num effects on healthy brains diminish, patients are told lies such as, “Psychiatric drugs are working, but because your illness is resistant to treatment, we need to administer electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), a method that complements and is even more effective than psychiatric drugs.”
ECT, just like psychoactive medications and drugs, numbs the healthy brains of people. When the brain is numbed… individuals experience a short-term calming effect. Once this calming effect wears off… the so-called relapse begins again.
But actually, this is a sign that ECT is causing brain damage. ECT-induced brain damage… causes brain trauma. That is to say…
If you administer enough (small doses) electric shocks, people’s healthy brains will slowly begin to cook (usually over the long term).
“According to the laws of electricity, HEAT is emitted. No matter how low the amount of HEAT… it will destroy people’s healthy brains – that is, (cook them like chicken in an oven). This cooking is invisible to the naked eye, undetectable by MRI – because first the brain molecules begin to cook, and then the physical structure of the brain begins to cook…”
If you increase the dose of electric shocks… people’s healthy brains suddenly start to cook. If you increase the dose of electric shocks… healthy brains suddenly start to cook. This high dose… causes brain damage in some people immediately and in others it causes brain damage later. Thus, healthy brains are damaged (brain damage /injury).
Keeping the electric shock dose low… doesn’t prevent healthy brains from being “cooked” and damaged. Even low-voltage electric shocks… can wreck (cook) healthy brains and cause brain damage. Therefore… no matter what you do, ECT causes brain damage.
***
The unchanging rule : “You can’t treat something that isn’t in the brain.”
No chemical agents, including psychiatric medications and drugs, and external electrical (magnetic) pulses like ECT, can treat something that is not in the brain. All of these first NUMB healthy brains and then cause serious damage (chemical and physical brain damage). I’m not even mentioning sudden deaths and deaths that occur later in life.
The brain is not to be trifled with. Don’t mess with people’s healthy brains.
The unchanging rule : You can’t treat something that isn’t in the brain. POINT. Best regards.
With my sincerest wishes. 🙂 Y.E. Research blog writer (Blogger)
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I noticed that a psychiatrist has come up with a new ‘illness’ called Trump Derangement Syndrome”. I was wondering if Electro Shock might be the treatment for this disease?
It really shows how absurd psychiatric diagnosis is when they can get this sort of thing past the public.
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As far as I know, this is meant to be a humorous reference to people who can’t stand Trump. I have heard it a lot on certain channels.
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“Trump Derangement Syndrome” – Mainstream psychiatrists always do this. This is a tactic of “producing mentally ill people” in mainstream psychiatry. 🙂
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“Kindly let me help you, or you’ll drown” said the monkey putting the fish up a tree.
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It’s hard to read the line “Clinical practice has improved” when they are still creating electrically-induced grand mal seizures as a form of “treatment.” The only “improvement” seems to be that other options are more likely to be offered before electrocution in a small minority of cases. Over 60% are still never even asked why they’re depressed in the first place!!!!!
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Dr. Read is being charitable. I imagine he has to walk a fine line to stay in business.
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Shameful situation, isn’t it, Steve?
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That it is. Talk about setting the bar low!
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“Over 60% are still never even asked why they’re depressed in the first place!”
I just watched Dr. Josef’s new video : (Psychiatrist Listens to Nick Reiner’s Schizophrenia Defense – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-oBZmaIX70 )
Here, it was discussing Nick Reiner, who was 32 years old, and why he was diagnosed with schizophrenia after the age of 32. Nick Reiner changed a lot after the schizophrenia diagnosis and became aggressive. Etc. etc.
Dr. Josef’s explanation reminded me of something.
“If a psychiatrist… labels someone with a mental illness, such as schizophrenia… that person’s state of mind can change “very badly” from that moment on. They may become irritable, worsen, become aggressive, and prone to suicide and murder. Etc. etc.”
The fundamental reason for this is actually simple. “The only reason an individual labeled as mentally ill by a psychiatrist behaves this way is because they know they will carry this label—for life (for the rest of their lives)—and that they may be ostracized by people and society. Etc. etc. And there are countless examples of this around the world.”
In short, mainstream psychiatry uses this tactic to turn people who are not mentally ill into “real mentally ill” individuals. By first labeling individuals with healthy brains and minds as mentally ill, they lure them into a trap and make them behave like “real mentally ill” individuals.
Mainstream psychiatry… thus, by turning healthy people into “real mental patients,” they CONFIRM (prove) the imaginary diagnoses they have given them.
It’s no wonder the number of “mentally ill” people is increasing worldwide.
“First, diagnose mental illness in healthy minds… then numb them (with medication), and then wait for the consequences. – Anger, violence, suicidal tendencies, depression, anxiety, ADHD, voices, sensory agitation, etc., etc. – This is the tactic of mainstream psychiatry… in producing “mentally ill” people within the psychiatric industry.
Best regards. Y.E. 🙂
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Yes, psychiatric labels are like a curse. It’s hard to face ridicule and social ostracism because of such labels, but even more difficult to overcome negative self-perception, which can intensify the original emotional distress.
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And we here all already know the “schizophrenia” treatments – the antipsychotics / neuroleptics – can create the “positive” symptoms of “schizophrenia,” via anticholinergic toxidrome. Plus, those neurotoxins can also create the negative symptoms of “schizophrenia,” via neuroleptic induced deficit syndrome. Shame on the psychiatrists, and mainstream doctors, who were all taught these truths in med school.
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We will look back on this era of psychiatry with shame and horror at the methods used
I have to say however I’m in the 15 per cent of women for whom ECT was a life saver
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That’s self fulfilling prophecy in action. Keep telling someone they are a certain label and eventually most will start to believe it. It’s pathetic and disgraceful that this is still being done to people. Psychiatrists need to keep doing this to stay in business though. Such an unethical and immoral field.
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Drugs like antidepressants, antipsychotics, and other poisons also induce mental illness in people and make their condition a thousand times worse. It’s so wrong that they are doing this to people. They shouldn’t be allowed to make people sick and harm them with drugs
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Psychiatric labels: cognitive bias + confirmation bias = institutional blindness
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Imagine somebody saying: “we are not barbarians to break people on the wheel, we have medical procedure under general anesthesia to remove all limbs surgically”. Obviously much better, more modern way…
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That’s pretty much psychiatry in a nutshell. It’s a disgraceful state of affairs that has been allowed to continue unchecked for decades now. It’s a nightmare
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Thank you, John Read, for all you do. I will say this systemic child abuse covering up problem of the psych industries has a reason, and it’s written right into their “invalid” DSM “bible.”
According to the DSM, no “mental health” worker may ever bill insurance companies to help any child abuse survivor, ever.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/your-child-does-not-have-bipolar-disorder/201402/dsm-5-and-child-neglect-and-abuse-1
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Or maybe I should say, what’s not written as a billable “disorder” in the “invalid” DSM – like the ability to bill to help child abuse survivors – causes the “mental health” workers to deny crimes that are not billable to help.
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Well done John with all your hard work. In summary however nothing has really changed. ECT is still given as a medical procedure. Nowhere else in ‘medicine’ is such a ridiculous harmful, completely unscientific aexhaust intervention still taking place.
An update on the situation here. Having failed to help me (quite the opposite for a decade) with virtually every drug available, then 30 ECT’s, they abandoned all the psychiatric DSM diagnoses, and said after all I had Frontotemporal Dementia.An anatomical description without any evidence again. After 2 years without drugs I have improved (not a feature of any dementia) with the only residual mental impairment being the horrendous damage to all aspects of my memory. Sadly the physical abuse suffered for the final 2 years of my incarceration has left me unable to walk for more than 30 steps. As a final insult the review l had 2 weeks ago concludes that they don’t think I have any form of dementia at all. So not only have I disproven all the diagnostic claims attached to me for 11 years, the final ‘dustbin’ diagnosis was wrong as well. Nowhere has there ever been a hint of an apology for 11 years of misdiagnosis, mismanagement and medical negligence.Lawyers tell me that the time expired since the ECT exposure makes the possibility of successful litigation unlikely, even though I was given huge doses of intramuscular antipsychotics for 6 months prior to my ‘transfer’ to the, now retracted, dementia diagnosis to get me off their hands.
Does anyone think I have a medicolegal case still?
Phillip S.
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Hello Dr. Read, I think this was great research and well described and easy to understand. I am frustrated at the lack of interest in pursuing research into REM self-help therapy. While your research uncovers the abject failure of ECT, so far there is no interest in documenting the positive effects of Se-REM (Self effective – Rapid Eye Movement). This project was created specifically to process childhood adverse effects. The results are superior to in office therapy sessions. The bureaucracy is so hardened to innovation, there is little motivation to try something so new. This is a program that could change mental health delivery. You can read more about it at: Se-REM.com and write to me at: [email protected]
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Thank you, John Read! I am so grateful to you and your commitment to your ECT research. It happened to me in 1961 and I have never forgotten those horrifying combined insulin and ECT “treatments” with no anesthesia. I believe ECT should be banned! It is dangerous and it kills brain cells. Period.
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Thank you all for your supportive comments. I am part of a great six person team including three women who have had ECT, Sue Cunliffe, Sarah Hancock and Lisa Morrison, plus two other Clinical Psychologists, Lucy Johnstone and Chris Harrop.
Thanks also to the 1,000+ folk who filled out our questionnaire.
Happy holidays to all at MAD IN AMERICA.
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I wonder is there ANY possibility that, at least in some countries, some ECT proponents will be put on trial? For example, if thy coerced patients. No need for big sentence, a lot of money and 6 months in prison would do the trick.
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I think one day this is a good possibility if the majority of people start caring about their constitutional rights again
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