Senior psychiatrists have defended the continued use of electroconvulsive therapy amid complaints of permanent memory damage.
Campaigner Professor John Read, a clinical psychologist based at the University of East London, takes on psychiatrists in a debate in The BMJ.
Professor Read says that his reviews of literature show no long-term benefits from ECT compared with placebo and that there is evidence of brain damage.
He is backed by former paediatrician Dr Sue Cunliffe, who alleges she suffered catastrophic brain injury from ECT.
Dr Cunliffe writes: “Like thousands of other ECT victims, I consented after being told ECT was safe; yet I suffered catastrophic brain injury.”
The procedure is defended by Dr Sameer Jauhar, of the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College, London, and by Professor Declan McLoughlin, of Trinity College, Dublin.
They write: “ECT is still used 80 years on because evidence shows it is effective for treatment resistant depression, which is often severe and sometimes life threatening, as well as resistant mania and catatonia.”
They say there is no "robust" evidence that the procedure causes brain damage and that the impact on short-term memory resolves within weeks.
BMJ 31 January 2019
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