Another Psychiatric Abuse

"Electroshock is violence."
-Ramsey Clark, former U.S. Attorney General, 1983)

"If the body is the temple of the spirit, the brain may be
seen as the inner sanctum of the body, the holiest of
places. To invade, violate and injure the brain, as electroshock
unfailingly does, is a crime against the spirit and a
desecration of the soul."
Leonard Roy Frank, shock survivor, editor and writer, 1991)

Electroshock appears to be increasingly prescribed as a treatment for "clinical" depression and other so-called mental disorders. Women and elderly people, particularly old women, are its chief targets more damning evidence of psychiatry's sexism and ageism. In the United States during the last ten years, an estimated 100,000 people have been shocked each year. In Canada, perhaps as many as 10,000 people, again mostly women, have been electroshocked each year, but nobody knows for sure because Health and Welfare Canada and the provincial health ministries do not publish ECT statistics, some of which are available on request. Besides, ECT statistics are notoriously inaccurate and unreliable, because collection methods differ from province to province and state to state; hospitals aren't required to keep accurate ECT records and not all hospitals are required to report ECT to provincial health ministries or state mental health departments.

I have discovered some recent shock statistics in Ontario which point to alarming trends: the increasing use of ECT and the targeting of women and the elderly for electroshock. Consider these statistical highlights:

1) In 1993-94, 11,360 shock treatments were administered to approximately 1,600 people in Ontario's general, community and psychiatric hospitals an average of seven shocks per patients. In 1994-95, 12,865 shocks were administered to over 1,500 people, a 12 per cent increase.

2) Most electroshock (over 80 per cent) in Ontario is administered in the public general hospitals, not provincial or private psychiatric hospitals.

3) Over 40 per cent of electroshock has been administered to people 60 years and older during the last five years.

4) In 1994-95, 97 elderly people, including 72 women (60 years and older), were subjected to 1,023 shocks in Ontario's provincial psychiatric hospitals
a high average of approximately 10 shocks per patient. In Toronto's Queen Street Mental Health Centre, over 70 per cent of the shock patients are from its psychogeriatric unit.

5) In 1993-94, approximately 600 elderly people (60+ years) were subjected to 4,033 electroshocks in Ontario's general and community psychiatric hospitals.

6) In the provincial psychiatric hospitals, the number and proportion of elderly people (65+ years) shocked grew from 70 (33 per cent) in 1990-91, to 82 (40 per cent) in 1993-94, to 44 per cent in 1994-95.

7) Among elderly and other ECT patients, significantly more women than men are electroshocked: two to three times more women than men have been electroshocked in both Canada and the United States for many years.

During 1994-95 in the provincial psychiatric hospitals, 72 per cent of elderly shock patients (75+ years) were women, and significantly more ECT was administered to an elderly woman than an elderly man (average 10.9 ECTs vs. 8.7 ECTs).

9) Women in their eighties and nineties have been electroshocked in general, community and provincial psychiatric hospitals in Ontario. In 1993-94, a total of 102 shocks were administered to at least 10 women of 85 years and older in general and community psychiatric hospitals. In 1994-95, at least 14 women of 80 years and older were subjected to 158 shocks in eight provincial psychiatric hospitals, an average of 11 ECTs per patient.

10) During 1994-95 in Ontario, the estimated cost of one electroshock treatment, including physicians' fees, drugs, use of a hospital bed and nursing care, was $400. The (under) estimated total cost for all ECT that year was well over $ 1,000,000.

Two very common psychiatric myths state: first, that electroshock can prevent or greatly reduce the risk of suicide in people diagnosed with "clinical depression" or "bipolar affective disorder"; and second, that electroshock is safe and effective for old and physically ill people.

The first myth was exposed at least six years ago by Dr. Donald Black and four colleagues. This study involving more than 1,000 depressed patients in Iowa found that there were no significant differences in the suicide rate among the various groups treated with electroshock, antidepressants and no treatment. However, the higher percentage of deaths among the shock patients (85 per cent higher at two year follow up than the non shock patients) clearly implicates shock as a contributing factor in their deaths (Black et al., 1989).

Regarding the second myth, Drs. David Kroessler and Barry Fogel's longitudinal study involving sixty five depressed patients 80 years and older found that for the ECT group, 27 per cent died within one year following the "treatment", but only 4 per cent of the "medicated" group died. In addition, one patient died after undergoing two ECTs. In other words, this study together with several previous ones, clearly show that electroshock threatens people's survival, especially if they are old and sick (Kroessler and Fogel, 1993).