SIMPLY

Treatmentdates from 1930s and was used as gay ‘cure’

VULNERABLE teens with mental health issues are routinely given controversial electric shock therapy by NHS doctors.

A Sunday Mirror probe today reveals patients as young as 16 have been given ECT despite fears over its long-term effects.

Studies have shown ECT can cause memory loss, disorientation and even brain damage.

Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that from 2016 to 2018, 5,165 patients were given shocks to the brain as high as 460 volts.

The patients were aged 16 to 98. The total number of teens treated is s not identified but a separate report seen een by the

Mirror shows one in six NHS Trusts administered ECT to under-18s. der-18s.

Barbara Keeley, Shadow Minister for Mental Health alth and Social Care, said: “The use of electroconvulsive therapy apy on children and young people le with mental health conditions ns by NHS trusts is deeply concerning and warrants immediate investigation by the Government and NHS England. Even in adults this treatment ought to be a last resort.”

Data shows the therapy can bring on Alzheimer’s in older patients. In more than one-third of cases it is given without patient consent, while 30 per cent of trusts administer ECT without seeking a second opinion.

GUIDELINES

Many patients were not offered all alternatives before doctors turned to the extreme measure, even though guidelines set by NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) recommend it as a “very last resort”.

None of the 37 NHS Trusts who co-oper- ated with our investigation reported giving aftercare to patients to help with side-effects.

And experts and politicians last night called for an immediate Government investigation, claiming it is being used before alternative approaches have been exhausted.

Leading expert Professor John Read said: “There can be no justification for giving ECT to teenagers. Their brains are still developing – and we know what it does to adults. In older adults it speeds up dementia.”

Referring to extreme methods from yesteryear, he added: “We think in about 10 years we will be able to look back on this the way we now look back on lobotomies, surprise baths, rotating chairs and standing people next to cannon fire and we will either laugh or cry. Probably cry.”

ECT involves small electric currents passing through the brain, intentionally triggering a brief seizure.

Although the modern process is done under anaesthetic, its physical

They seem so pleased with who they cure, yet totally and utterly dismiss people like me DR SUE CUNLIFFE ELECTRO THERAPY PATIENT AND EX-DOCTOR

ECT was invented in Italy in the 1930s by Ugo Cerletti, a professor of neuropsychiatry who had been using it in animal experiments.Initially seen as a safer option to inducing seizures chemically – which was fairly common at the time – it quickly became widely used in mental hospitals.In the 1950s, ECT was also used as a “treatment” for homosexuality, then considered by some psychiatrists to be an illness.By the 1960s and ’70s critics had labelled it as barbaric. Ken Kesey’s 1962 book One Flew Over The HANDFUL Patient has ECT in 1956 Cuckoo’s Nest – and the 1975 film starring Jack Nicholson – depicted scenes of unruly patients forced to have ECT.This, along with protests from the anti-psychiatry movement, led to a sharp decrease in the treatment.Between 1979 and 1989, ECT use in England dropped by a third. In 1980 around 50,000 UK patients received ECT. This fell to 12,000 in 2002 and latest figures show it at just over 5,000.It is still used in nearly all psychiatric hospitals, with a 2002 survey showing 71 per cent of patients were women and 46 per cent were over 65. EXTREME ECT sends electric currents through the brain